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THE COMPLETE LIFE. Six Addresses. 112 pages. 
Cloth, 50 cents. 

" Words brave and true. Every word the author indites is 
golden, and should be read by young and old. Such books are 
genuine uplifts of heart and mind, and when we get to heaven, 
if we ever do, through earth's sordid dust and mire, we shall 
have men like James H. West to thank for finding our way 
there." — Chicago Evening Journal. 

UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. Religious As- 
pirations in Prose and Verse. Second Thousand, with ad- 
ditions. 106 pages. Cloth, 50 cents. 

"Free from the mechanism of ritual or liturgy, and yet sat- 
urated throughout with the devoutness of one who feels both the 
mystery of the world and the glory of the revelation that shines 
through its clouds." — Christian Register. 

" Deeply religious in the best sense, though suspicious of 
forms. This volume is one of the many assurances that the 
liberal church will fast enough gather poetry, music, and art, to 
invest its nobler thought." — New Theology Herald. 

HOLIDAY IDLESSE, and Other Poems. New Red- 
Line Edition. Illustrated. Large square i2mo. Cloth, 252 
pages, $1.00. 

" His poems rank easily in the higher grade of those pub- 
lished in these days." — Co?igregationalist. 

" Excellent verse, of a very genuine sort, — full of poetic sug- 
gestiveness, aspiration and the glow of true feeling. . . . Un- 
usually clear in outline and strong in expression."— Christian 
Union. 

VISIONS OF GOOD. Thirty-three recent Poems of Free- 
dom. [1892.] Paper, 10 cents. 

" A serene augury and hopeful forelook, . . . busy with large 
thoughts, . . . full of cheer, faith, feeling, . . . not a morbid 
note in the whole, . . . truly helpful. " —/. V. Blake, in Unity. 



Uplifts of Heart and Will 



RELIGIOUS ASPIRATIONS IN PROSE AND VERSE 



By JAMES H. WEST 

Author of " The Complete Life," " Holiday Idlesse, and Other 
Poems," "Visions of Good," etc., etc. 



"It takes a soul to move a body. 
* * Life develops from within." 



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BOSTON -^ ^ WA»* ^> J 

Geo. H. Ellis, 141 Franklin Street U j } J () \J 

1893 y 



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Copyright, 1893, 
By JAMES H. WEST\ 



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TO 
THE MEMBERS AND FRIENDS OF 

WHERE THESE MEDITATIONS HAD ORIGIN, 
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED. 

1884-1887. 



u The prayer of Emerson at Cambridge, we are told, had no 
pronouns in it. Was it, then, not a prayer? If anything 
hereafter is to be recognized as valid and uplifting, it is the 
expression of reverential thought. .... Partially have we in- 
terpreted human experience, and missed the divine, if we have 
not seen that in that conflict with self which speaks in soliloquy^ 
in that struggle with things or affairs which breaks forth in 
earnest fneditation, as well as in that recognition of the God of 
theology which urges every petition with its imploring Thou, 
alike God is present and God is invoked. The distinction 
between the me and the not-me is the unsolved problem of 
philosophy." — J. C. Learned, The Future of Religion. 



NOTE TO THE EDITION OF 1893. 

A second edition of this little work — originally published 
in 1887 — gives opportunity for the insertion of a few further 
verses. That the first thousand copies of a book of this 
character have met sale, even in the period of five years 
which has elapsed since it first appeared, while the demand 
for it is still prevalent, perhaps justifies the author in his 
zeal, however shrinkingly in the first place he put the volume 
forth, and however poorly (as he now sees) his task was 
accomplished. 

He now again earnestly allows these Meditations to go 
out. They have been called for, since they first appeared, 
not only in the United States, but from England and Ger- 
many, from Japan and China, from India, from Australia and 
the Islands of the Pacific. They can bring him, in the 
future, from those who use them, no words of love and en- 
couragement more deep and hopeful than they have brought 
him in the past. 



It is suggested that where these Meditations, or Aspirations, are used 
by congregations, the reading of the same may be either by Leader 
and People, in concert, or else in the form of a responsive service, — in 
which latter case alternate sentences may be read by the Leader and 
People. Where thus used (in the form of responses), the close of each 
sentence will be found to be sufficiently marked, for ease in reading, by 
the natural punctuation (the "period"). To have broken up the Medita- 
tions into separate short paragraphs would have been, it would seem- 
to disfigure the pages of the book unnecessarily. 



Where used in the Family, for Morning Upward-Looking, the num- 
ber of general Meditations will be fouAd sufficient for daily use, for one 
month, without repetition. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

i. Through love, to the source of love, . . . . . , 7 

2. Breathed upon, and animated, and blest, 8 

3. With earnest and reverent hearts, 9 

4. In brotherly and sisterly confession, . . . . . . . 11 

5. The secret chamber of our being, 12 

6. We look ever towards the Ideal, 14 

7. In the presence of the eternal truth, 16 

8. With reverent hearts we seek power, 17 

9. Strength for the battle of life, 19 

10. The sunlight calls us to gladness, 20 

11. From the actual to the Ideal, 21 

12. Conscious of weakness, of imperfection, 23 

13. Before the mystery of living, 24 

14. Anew to the Blessed Best, 25 

15. Surrounded by the infinite helpfulness, 27 

16. The energy in whose life we live, 28 

17. The deep things of life call to us, 29 

18. When we would do good, 30 

19. Overbrooded by what is more than love, 32 

20. The bounty of the unseen power, 23 

21. From all evil things of care, 34 

22. As the rain cometh down from the skies, 36 

23. We covet the best gifts, 36 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

24. Always going out after the good, 38 

25. "Surely it is a power that hideth itself," 39 

26. Surrounded — forever inclosed, 40 

27. Not with ungrateful hearts, 41 

28. That our eyes might be opened, 42 

29. In the presence of the All-in-all, 44 

30. We follow on to know, 45 

31. In remembrance of all World- Helpers, 47 

32. In special thought of Duty, 48 

23. For the Passing of Winter, 50 

34. For the Coming of Spring, 51 

35. For the Fullness of Summer, 51 

36. For a Memorial Service, I., 53 

37. For a Memorial Service, II., 54 



POEMS. 

Uplifts of Heart and Will, 57 

The Passage, 58 

God and Man, 60 

Struggle, 61 

The Helper, 62 

Morning, 63 

Life's Beauty, 64 

Beacon-Lights, 65 

Thyself Within, 66 

World-Trust, 67 

"Prepared," - . 68 

Cypress Crowned, .69 

" Be Ye Perfect," , 70 

The Transcendent Possibility, . 71 



CONTENTS. ix 

PAGE 

A Song of Degrees : 

I. All Hail! Auspicious Morning! 72 

II. Lights of God, 72 

III. From Everlasting to Everlasting, 73 

IV. Signs and Wonders, 74 

V. To Truth — My God, 77 

VI. Earth's Golden Prime Lies Infinitely On, .... 78 

VII. These Creeds' O'erturning Sods, 79 

VIII. Epilogue: 

(1) My Rose of Search, 80 

(2) Ah, Conclaves, Councils! 81 

Life, 82 

In Admiration of World-Helpers, 86 

Times of Refreshing, 87 

My Feathered Preacher, 88 

After the Palm and Cheer, 89 

Star and Cross, 90 

Neo-Resurrection, 91 

Alpha and Omega, 92 

Dream-Counsel, 93 

Man : A Phantasy ? 96 

Up Higher, 98 

Anniversary Hymn, 100 

Pentecost, 102 

L'Envoi. — "Meteors," 105 



Salutation. 

To be sung by all, without announcement, as the congregation rises for the 

Meditation. 

Arise, O soul ! With heart and will 
The call of the Divine fulfill ! 
That in our strife for perfect Good 
The ills of life may be withstood. 



Aspiration. 

To be sung by all, without announcement, at the close of the Meditation. 

Now may our inmost Being feel 
The glory of the far Ideal! 
And in the Strength we have descried 
May faith and will be fortified ! 



Benediction. 

To be sung- by all, without announcement, after the Closing" Word of the 

Leader. 

The gracious Might of earth and sky 
Pursues us though we live or die: 
That Might — which may be ours — be praised ! 
And to its height our souls be raised! 



*** Any familiar long-meter tune— " Missionary Chant,*' " Old Hun- 
dred," or other — may be used for the above. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL 



i. 

Through love, to the source of love we fain 
would look, and, finding the highest love, would 
strive to attain thereto. 

Pressed upon, on every side, by the mighty forces 
of the universe, which, looked at largely, are pro- 
gressive and helpful, we strive to go back of them 
all, beyond them all, to search out the eternal spirit 
which is their origin, and, entering into communion 
therewith, be blessed and prospered. Beauty and 
bounty surround us; order and progress are before 
our eyes, the signs of the normal way of all true 
working. May we put away, therefore, all evil 
from us; all that results in pain and sorrow and re- 
morse; all that holds men back; all that brings 
degradation and death, and seek for the things of the 
Highest Life; — working, not against the progress- 
ive, helpful order of things, but with that order: 
working together with the eternal, developing en- 
ergy — in the upbuilding and perfecting of our bodies, 
in the cultivation of our minds, in the elevation of 
our spiritual natures. 

May we all be blessed and helped in the Upward 
Way. May we do our part to cleanse the world, to 



8 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

relieve it of its sorrows; to do away with all those 
things which work ruin to men. May we feel that 
the world can be made sweeter and cleaner and bet- 
ter; that men can be brought to where they will see 
that purity and temperance and righteousness are the 
normal and proper states; and that passion and im- 
purity and /^temperance work nothing but pain and 
loss. May we do what we can to reveal to men that 
they cannot fight the highest things and the best 
things and meet anything but defeat — dust and ashes, 
anguish and suffering. Thus will all men be blessed. 
May the sorrowing, to-day, find joy out of their 
pain; may the bereaved find gain in their loss; may 
the earnest find trust in their doubt. May the true 
Commonwealth of Man — of peace, and of faith in 
the eternal progress — come speedily to pass. 

2. 

Breathed upon, and animated, and blest, by the 
life-energy of the universe, in which life we live and 
of which we are a part, we would be grateful for ex- 
istence, and for the beautiful world about us, with its 
changing seasons, its sunshine and rain and dew, its 
days of warmth and springing life, its days of cloud 
and storm, — " heat, wet, cold, dry, and peace and 
pain," — all things that go to the upbuilding of men, 
and to the developing of grain and grass and flower 
and fruit for man's benefit. We would not be un- 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 9 

grateful. Life well-lived is good. Truth and beauty 
of spirit and purity of heart make life a blessedness 
and delight. The universe is in league with those 
who seek for rightness of life. May we make the 
most of our opportunities, building ourselves up in 
every possible way; that, as the future slowly un- 
folds before us, we may see ourselves and the world 
of men about us, through our efforts, growing bet- 
ter and stronger and happier and more upright. 

May holy ambition be ours. May divine aspira- 
tion be ours. May fuller, larger life be ours. May 
we say to the hurry and turmoil and care and grief 
and temptation of life, Ye shall not oppress us ! And 
to the beauty and strength and sweetness, the good 
and blessedness of life, may we say, Come ye, enter 
into our souls; dwell with us! Behold, at the door 
ye stand and knock. And unto you we open gladly, 
rejoicingly, the inner, most secret, most sacred cham- 
bers of our being. Come in! come in! dwell with 
us, and we with you! 

3. 

With earnest and reverent hearts we gather 
again, to look into each others' faces, to take each 
others' hands, and to find, in mutual fellowship and 
sympathetic thought, strength and hope for coming 
days. 

All good forces are around about us. Like the sun- 



IO UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

shine, — like the rain and the snow, that in their season 
come down from the skies, and water the earth and 
make it to bring forth and bud, that it may give seed 
to the sower and bread to the eater,— so are all the 
sure mercies of the eternal developing power. Sum- 
mer and winter, seed-time and harvest, do not fail. 
Likewise, all sources of physical strength, of mental 
growth, of spiritual exaltation, are ever open to us, if 
we but look with our eyes and hear with our ears, 
and stretch forth our hands — in the right way. 

May we this day, therefore, incline our hearts unto 
true wisdom! May we not dwell, any day, altogether 
among the things of mere living! Not that we may 
slight our daily duties; — we must be earnest in ac- 
quiring and careful in spending; we must labor and 
love and live. Yet must we also sometimes turn our 
thoughts up and out, searching for that which is the 
source of our life, — for that which is our Higher 
Life, — finding, in our thought of the abiding reality, 
and in our aspiration towards all that is true, and 
pure, and noble, and beautiful, and of good-report, 
comfort and encouragement and trust. 

May the young, this day, have courageous hearts, 
and high ideals, and earnest wills. May the old have 
repose and peace. May the sorrowing find ease; the 
weary, rest; the sick, new health; the sinner, strength 
to be true. May all men be blessed, — and may we all 
do our part in bringing about the blessing. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. II 

4- 

We bow our heads and our hearts, this hour, in 
brotherly and sisterly confession! Confession is good 
for the soul — if it leads to an avoidance, afterward, 
of the sins and evils confessed. To know our weak- 
nesses is good, — if knowing them makes us watch- 
ful to overcome them. Bowing, this hour, in recog- 
nition of the might of the unseen and eternal, — 
the might of that which is ideally just and pure and 
true, — how poor, how weak, how empty, how 
meager, how tarnished, how sinful, in comparison, 
appear our souls! 

Have we been oftentimes unjust to our fellows? 
Have we wronged any one? Have we deceived our 
neighbors — thoughtlessly, perhaps, oftentimes, but 
no less deceived them ? We shrink from confessing 
that we have defrauded any one ! — but have we not, 
in any way? Have we held impure thoughts? 
Have we been revengeful in spirit? Have we taken 
pleasure in seeing evil befall any man, who, perhaps, 
has previously injured us? Have we been impa- 
tient with the sins of our world-brothers and world- 
sisters who are weaker than we are? Do we forget 
the many trials and cares, and the ignorance of the 
right way, and the weakness of will, which are theirs? 
Do we put ourselves always in their place before we 
judge them? 

Have we been kind to those in need? Have we 



12 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

been a father to the fatherless and a friend to the 
widow? Have we seen any real distress or want, 
which we might have alleviated, — and failed to do 
our part? Have we passed the wounded and the 
sorrowing by, on the other side ? . . . . 

Would that divine power and love might enter 
into our souls, and strength into our bodies and wills! 
We would be better men and women! We ought to 
be better men and women! .... 

May all who mourn, this day, be comforted — 
trusting in the Heart of Good. May all who are in 
need find a human providence watching to supply. 
May all who sin be encouraged to overcome. May 
all men find rest and peace ! 

5- 

Entering into the secret chamber of our being, 
we desire first of all, this hour, truth in our inmost 
souls, and that in the hidden ways of life we may be 
made to know wisdom! For of wisdom and truth 
we have ceaseless need ! 

Pressed on by the many variances and trials of life, 
thrown about here and there by the strong forces of 
good and evil, that abound not only in the world of 
matter but also in the world of mind and morals, we 
seek truth — wisdom — in order that we may know 
how wisely to try to guide our feet through the 
maze of each new day's experience. Life is not 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 13 

what we would have it. Life is not what we feel 
that we might make it, either for ourselves or for 
those about us. Too often, and overmuch, we deem 
ourselves weak and poor and ignorant! "Behold, 
we know not anything! " Whereas, the sorrows that 
press us down; the griefs that abound about us; the 
disappointments that are our daily food; the impa- 
tience and irritableness that possess us; the passions 
and down-dragging desires that keep us in continual 
war — that keep us in battle which results, how fre- 
quently, in utter defeat — might all be largely, if in- 
deed not wholly overcome by us, if we but turned 
ourselves, inquiringly and resolutely, to study and 
thought and will! 

As not yet too late, our hearts turn now to these, 
and towards all that is good and true! And search- 
ing out and seizing on all the helpful, beneficial, up- 
lifting forces of the world about us, — and forgetting, 
thrusting from us, so far as we may, the evils and 
sorrows and works of death that strive to hold us 
back, — we would henceforth seek to follow the right ! 
We would strive, each one of us, from this time on- 
ward, to be pure, true, upright, helpful men and 
women, looking for all the Strong Might of the 
Real and of the Ideal, and taking that Might directly 
into our own lives — as we may ! 



14 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

6. 

May we look ever towards the Ideal, and urge on- 
ward our wills to its attainment! For herein, only, is 
our rational salvation: — in the furthering of purity, 
of right trust, of truth, and honor, and honesty, and 
helpfulness, through the holding and following of 
Ideals! The mighty need, in every soul of man, for 
all high, hopeful sentiment, calls to us to search out 
a Goal of Good, and to strive so to run that we may 
gain it. For we all live a dual life! We live the life 
that is low and " animal," — the life of selfishness, of 
avarice, of bitterness, of lack of sympathy towards 
others, of panderings to evil habit: the life of the 
race's ancient imperfection still present in our blood 
and brain. And this life drags us, frequently, — daily, 
it may be, — to the mouth of " hell." Nay, sometimes 
we go in ! And on the devil's rack of physical pain, 
and in the fires of spiritual remorse, we meet the tor- 
ments of the " damned." 

And we live, also, the life that is high and holy, — 
the life of uplifting sentiment; of aspiration; of hope 
for purity ; of love for truth and beauty ; the life of 
good will to others; of sacrifice of self that others 
may be blessed : the life of developing spirit overcom- 
ing the race's ancient tendencies. And this life draws 
us frequently, — it may be daily, — it ought to be 
hourly, — to the gates of " heaven." More than to the 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 15 

gates! Here, also, sometimes, we go in! And in the 
shade of the trees of peace, and by the water of the 
river of Life, we whisper the soul-songs of the " re- 
deemed." 

We recognize, moreover, that it depends on the 
"predominance " of one of these lives, over the other, 
in us, how we should estimate — yes, and how we shall 
meet — our growing destiny ! We may know, at any 
rate, that our growing destiny — of joy, or pain — de- 
pends largely, if not altogether, on ourselves. We 
ourselves must overcome the low and base in us; we 
ourselves must come into harmony with Good; we 
ourselves must follow to gain the Ideal ! 

May we, then, this day, and through all coming 
time, — seek the Good! making That, quickly, the 
" predominant " life we live ! Let us give our thought 
to virtue; our wills to righteousness; our hands to 
helpfulness; make the religion we profess a religion 
of saving power; live in the Ideal; in the sphere of 

exalted sentiment and exalting deed And this 

shall be to us as a new and actual " Redeemer," — a 
salvation from all sin; an entrance even here admin- 
istered unto us, abundantly, into the ever-increasing 
kingdom of right and blessedness. We shall be 
growing into harmony with the upward-trending 
Nature of Things. 



l6 UFLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

7- 

Asking, that we may receive; seeking, that we 
may find ; knocking, that it may be opened unto us, we 
come again, bowing in the presence of the eternal 
truth, bowing in the presence of the good and the 
just, and of everything that is everlasting, seeking to 
know how best to live, how rightly to conduct our- 
selves on our way onward and upward from out of 
the infinite mystery of the past towards the infinite 
mystery of the future. We know that the humble, 
the lowly in spirit, are blessed, and do enter into the 
kingdom of peace. We know that they who rightly 
mourn — mourn for the evil and wrong of their past, 
and henceforth turn their hearts and wills towards the 
right — are blessed, and comforted. We know that 
the truly meek are blessed, and do inherit the best 
things of earth. We know that they who hunger 
and thirst after righteousness are blessed, and filled 
with joy so that such hunger and thirst are happiness. 
We know that the merciful are blessed, for in their 
own souls they, too, obtain mercy. We know that 
the pure in heart are blessed, for they see the God 
within them. We know that the peacemakers are 
blessed, for they are the true children of the eternal 
power which, in its higher human manifestations, 
" makes " for peace. 

So we strive for the attainment of all this blessed- 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 17 

ness! — strive to be humble; to mourn — not despair- 
ingly, but encouragingly and progressively; to be 
truly meek; to attain righteousness; to be merciful; 
to be pure in heart; to be peacemakers. Our hearts 
go out towards all that is Good ! To all that is evil 
we would say, Get thee far from us! Moreover, may 
we this hour be helped and strengthened not only to 
see the true eternal way of peace, but may our feet 
be led to walk therein! Then, though we indeed may 
still feel our weakness, — our need, — we shall never 
doubt the final outcome, we shall never doubt the 
Victory of the Good. 

May we have the will and the courage to do our 
fart, — banishing the seductive wiles of evil, of low- 
ness, of superstition, of religion falsely so-called, and 
giving all our soul and heart and mind and strength 
to the religion that is true. Thus may we and all the 
world be blessed. 

8. 

With reverent hearts we seek the eternal power 
which is our life and our strength — in which we live 
and move and have our being. What are we, the 
dependent creatures of the all-developing energy, if 
solely in our own strength we endeavor to go on! 
We know that of ourselves we are nothing. We 
know that without the morning light and the eve- 
ning shade, without the breath of the air, and the 



l8 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

moisture of the rain from heaven, and the wheat 
from the field, we would vanish away like smoke. In 
seeking God we seek our life. In seeking our life 
we seek God. While now we seek the Highest and 
Best, may our souls be filled with earnest hopes. 

And not only with hopes, but with highest deter- 
minations also! For we know that without our own 
earnest labor, we still are nothing! It is by accepting 
the helpful forces about us, and using them aright, 
that we are built up. 

Suns may shine, and darkness may bring sleep to 
us; rain may fall, and fields may offer place for seed; 
but unless we rise up early, and go forth to labor till 
the evening, no harvest is ours. Unless vje strive 
against and put all evil away from us, good comes not. 
Unless we tread out from the paths of our hearts the 
weeds of selfishness and sin, our nobler, truer life is 
choked, and lies withered. 

May we have strength in our weakness! May we 
have courage in our doubt; faith and hope in all. 
May we fight a valiant battle throughout life, and 
come off conquerors. May we strive to be true to 
ourselves and helpful to others — honest and severe 
with ourselves, and patient and sympathetic with 
others. So shall we see a truer life coming to pass 
on earth, and we shall be led on into the future hope- 
fully. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 19 

9- 

We seek, this hour, strength and wisdom for the 
battle of life. We look back over our life-path, and 
we see — weakness, dalliance, defeat. Many things 
have conspired to aid and encourage us; home, and 
friends, education to a greater or less degree, the 
beauty of the world, the necessities of life — which have 
brought us into contact with the forces which work 
together for the progress of the world. Many things 
have conspired to aid and encourage us, if we have 
but looked upon them as we should, and used them 
as we should. 

And many things also have conspired against us! 
— pangs of nature, sins of will, defects of doubt, and 
taints of blood — lions in our path; and we have fal- 
tered, have yielded, and been overcome by them. We 
have done those things which we ought not to have 
done, and we have left undone those things which we 
should have done. 

With great desire, we desire at this time, and in all 
coming time, strength and wisdom ; that hereafter we 
may do better; that hereafter we may be stronger, 
making new and sure progress each new day — as we 
wish to do, and as we strive to do — in the way of per- 
fection; which is the way of holiness — wholeness. 

A part of this universe, we feel that we have work 
to do. A part of this mighty scheme of ever-increas- 
ing beauty and strength and grandeur which the ages 



20 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

are evolving, we feel that we have, every one of us, 
a duty to perform. The forces of life about us call 
to us — physical, mental, moral, spiritual; and the 

needs of men command our earnest work And 

beyond this, through love, to the source of love we 
fain would look, and, finding the highest love, would 
therein dwell, that ours and the world's may be not 
only health of body and happiness of heart, but the 
fruits of the spirit also — which are love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, 
meekness, temperance; against which there is no law. 
May all this great good indeed come to us! May we 
study and strive to have it come to us. 

10. 

The sunlight calls us to gladness c The Spirit of 
Life throbs all about us — in its glow the worlds re- 
volve. Under its influence the trees and flowers bud 
and bloom. Through its ceaseless outpourings our 
own hearts pulsate with joy and good-will, with faith 
and hope and trust. 

Shone on, thus, by the Ever-present Beauty, may 
we believe life good, and live it well! May we 
work also for the future of earth, and of our world- 
fellows to be. And may we not fear to dream of 
our own future; the rather, may we deem it sure — 
whatever it shall prove in the detail which now we 
cannot grasp. Above all, may we feel that, whatever 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 21 

it shall be, we ourselves, now, are helping to make 
it; are making it. May we be confident that an ap- 
proach to perfection — the possibility of higher and 
purer joys than earth-bound, passion-led beings ever 
know — is to be attained, here or anywhere, only by 
the overcoming, on our own part, of the evil that is 
inherent in us as offspring of earth's unsublimated 
forces. 

As far as may be, may we take those forces wisely 
in hand, and sublimate them even now! — turning 
chaos and old darkness into helpfulness and light. 
May we study how we may do this. And may we 
ever have hope and courage, — trusting never in any 
miraculous aid from without, nor ever in any magic 
formula, but seeking that we may find, and knock- 
ing that it may be opened unto us. 

May we live to help others also, turning many to 
the Better Way. 

II. 

From the world of the actual, the world of strug- 
gle and turmoil and sin, withdrawing; into the world 
of the Ideal, the world of courage and hope and 
high endeavor, entering, — this hour may our inward 
ear be opened to catch superior sounds! What is 
this hurrying, bustling, wayward, anxious, disap- 
pointing life, with its losses unending, its aggrava- 
tions and griefs continuous, — if in our care and weari- 



22 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

ness there come not hope and trust, and a conscious- 
ness of the Might that lies in Right; a conscious- 
ness of the Might that lies in loving the Good, how- 
ever little, to ourselves, we may seem at times to rise! 
in aspiring for the perfect, however small, to us, 
seems often our actual attainment! in laboring, 
against whatever obstacles, for Purity and Justice 
and Upward-Looking and Love in the world! For 
we know that the universe itself, with all its higher 
developing forces, is on the side of all these things ; 
and if we are on the universe's side, then nothing of 
real harm can ever come to us. We shall go on 
from strength to strength. 

May we strive for faithfulness and courage! that 
the battle of life may indeed prove, for us all, not a 
valley of Desolation and Defeat, but a mountain- 
height of Victory! Sin — may we spurn it! Hatred 
and covetousness — may we flee from them! Love — 
may we seize hold upon it! Good-will — may we em- 
brace it! Struggle for our uplifting, and for the 
nobler benefit of our fellows — may we give our 
lives to this. 

Come, spirit of truth! dwell with us! Come, 
spirit of progress! inspire us! Come, spirit of good! 
spirit of holiness! spirit of purity and cleanliness and 
beauty! animate us! 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 23 

12. 

Conscious of weakness, of imperfection, in the 
presence of the Ideal Moral Law, we come together 
with hope and reverence, to reach out hands of faith 
after the true deity, and to seek to understand our 
duty in relation to the laws of the Higher Life — of 
the Blessed Best. 

We know the lower life — we feel its smart, its 
pain, its bitterness, its inadequateness to satisfy the 
soul. We have visions of a heaven — a heaven on 
earth; where peace, and purity, and health, and good- 
will, reign eternal — where beauty and order are ever 
present. And we strive to enter in at the narrow gate 
of truth and love, and of obedience to law, which 
shall give us, as those who have overcome, the right 
to sit down upon the universe's throne, even as all 
the good and pure of the past have overcome, and 
have sat down! 

May we strive day by day to be faithful to the 
Best — faithful to the best that is in us, and to the best 
that is outside of us. We know the right, and we 
approve it; may we also work, being hearers of the 
word not only, but also doers. 

Our hearts go out, as always, towards all, the world 
over, who are in sorrow; towards all who have met 
loss; towards all who are bound in chains of evil 
habit — who want to do better, and yet seem to be 



24 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

held back. May hope and strength and courage 
come to all such — and a helping human hand ! Men 
must be true; men must be faithful and pure and 
clean. And there must be Helpers. Only for the 
pure in heart and the earnest in life is the crown of 
righteousness reserved; only by such is the Eternal 
Life Now attained. May we be, all of us, both of 
those who overcome and of those who help. 

May wrong and oppression cease over the whole 
earth. May wars be done away with. May doubt 
and darkness flee away, and all men come out into 
the Light and the Truth. 

IS- 

Before the mystery of living, and the beauty of 
the world, we stand with eager, questioning, worship- 
ful hearts — seeking to know what it all means; seek- 
ing to know the right, and full of an earnest, abid- 
ing desire for will and energy to follow that right. 
Around us everywhere are order and beauty, and the 
evidences of increasing strength and progress. May 
we not be unmindful of our part in it all — our duty ! 
or of our great opportunities. May our souls burn 
within us with a love for what is pure and upright 
and clean. May we seek for the highest life, the best 
life, the truest life. We know we can be better than 
we are — we know we can build ourselves up in truth 
and purity and sincerity and earnestness far beyond 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 2 



3 



our present attainment in any of these things. Beauty 
for ashes we seek, and the garment of praise for the 
spirit of heaviness! 

May we strive to have the Good in us come to the 
front! The evil and the low in us may we put down 
and thrust aside. Thus shall our blinded eyes be 
cleared, and we shall see that life has meaning, 
where now we often stumble aimlessly. May we in- 
deed look within us, patiently, wisely, for the eternal 
world-spirit, — the Good, — the God, — which, if we 
quell not its voice, speaks ever in our souls, saying, 
Be valiant, and true, and desirous ever of new at- 
tainment! Be pure and upright in soul! Be stead- 
fast and strong in thought, and progressive in deed, — 
and fear not the world nor what the world may say! 

Looking thus within us, this voice we shall hear. 
And hearing, may we obey it! Then shall we not 
fear, though death and evil encamp against us. We 
shall be blessed. 

14. 

Entering, each one of us, this hour, into the se- 
cret place of our own souls; bowing there, in the 
presence of the Ideal which ever beckons us, and ac- 
knowledging with contrition our frequent shortcom- 
ings, we would here vow ourselves anew, and all 
that we have, to the Blessed Best, — the Best of which 
we can conceive. 

We seek for truth, and for strength to follow that 



26 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

truth. We seek for wisdom, that our life-path may 
be a path in true accord with the laws of things, — in 
true accord with the physical and moral and spiritual 
forces about us in the universe, — from obedience to 
which, only, come health and blessing and peace. 
To this end, may we study daily, and take counsel of 
one another, that we may enter wisely into the sub- 
lime results of all past human discovery and research, 
making the most of our later and better opportuni- 
ties. Many saviours have given their lives for us. 
Other men labored, and we have entered into their 
labors. Shall we ourselves not do something for 
those who are around about us; who are to follow 
us ? At least we may obey, — obey the truth and the 
right; at least we may so live as to add nothing to 
the weight of the world's sin or to the depth of the 
world's sorrow. 

May desire for obedience be ours, and the will to 
obey : that when we go back again whence we came — 
our bodies to the dust, our souls to further co-work- 
ing with the developing energy — we may leave the 
world a little purer, a little truer, a little sweeter, a 
little cleaner, for our having lived! This is our great 
desire — this is our hope and prayer. 

Again would we bear on our hearts, this hour, the 
grief of all who grieve, over the whole earth. May 
they be heroic grievers, and we compassionate com- 
forters. And may all men do what they can to de- 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 27 

crease sin in the world — to do away with sin; to do 
away with all harshness also, and all uncharitableness 
and unloveliness of spirit; that life for all men may 
be nobler, truer and grander, and the world be blessed. 

15. 

Surrounded ever by the infinite helpfulness, we 
would look up! It is good for us, as men and women, 
to turn our thoughts upward and out towards the 
soul of things, searching after the matters that con- 
cern our highest welfare. It is good for us to meet, 
to take each others' hands and look into each others' 
faces, finding in each others' presence and thought, 
strength and help and courage and trust. We are 
not here upon this bank and shoal of time without 
grave and great responsibilities. Around us is the sea 
of human life, dark often, and often in turmoil. 
Drifting by us go the wrecks of human lives, shat- 
tered on the rocks of mere sensuous gratification — of 
passion and intemperance and apathy. Ahead of us 
are the beacon-lights of Knowledge, pointing our 
way, and illuminating the charts of Purity and earn- 
est Endeavor, — which, followed aright, guide to the 
haven of Peace, to the harbor of true manly and 
womanly Perfection. 

May we have power to follow aright! And may 
we have the will and the wish, as light comes to our- 
selves, to show others, also, the way, — to help those 



28 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

who lack power and will of their own, to the cultiva- 
tion of stronger courage and higher purpose. 

We feel that all depends upon ourselves; that noth- 
ing is ever done for us, in any outside, mysterious, 
miraculous way. If we would be strong in body, 
we must exercise our muscles and follow the laws of 
health. If we would be mentally competent, we 
must study and read and reason. If we would be 
morally perfect, we must fight evil and follow the 
good. If we would have soul-peace, we must look 
up and out, and trust the eternal heart of good, the 
eternal providence which permeates all things, and 
fut ourselves in accord with this. 

May this be our aim, and our endeavor, always. 
Thus we shall have peace, and constant courage. 
Hope will be ours — a light to our feet, a happiness to 
our souls. 

16. 

Unknown, yet well-known, invisible, yet ever- 
present in manifestation, is the divine energy in whose 
life we live, before which, in reverence and aspira- 
tion, we bow! Would that it, the source of all truth, 
might enter this hour into our souls, and uplift and 
bless us! While its beauty lies around us, may we not 
be unmindful of it all. May we open our inmost be- 
ing to its reception — fling wide the portals of the 
heart, and cry, Come in, come in, thou blessed of all 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 29 

worlds! thou, and thou alone, canst animate and exalt 
us! 

We are the children of the universe. We are the 
offspring of the developing forces which thrill and 
throb through all, working up through cycles wide. 
We and they are " one." May we recognize our 
high kinship ! our potential divinity and nobility ! our 
possibilities! And then may we live worthily, as 
knowing what we ought to be! We indeed do not 
know ourselves fully. We do not know whence we 
are, nor whither we go. But we feel that we are 
greater than we know. And we would so live as to 
carry ourselves on and up to all possible heights. 
We know that the soul is the high part of us; that 
the mind, the intellect, the moral nature within us, is 
the true god-part of us — the part which to aggrand- 
ize is to create true life and blessedness for ourselves. 

Then may this be our holy task! — to live high, 
pure, temperate, helpful lives. So shall true grati- 
tude and joy, and ever new upward-looking, be ours, 
and we shall not miss the great salvation. 

17. 

The sunlight speaks, to-day, to our eyes. And the 
mystery of life and death, and of the order and beauty 
of the worlds, speaks to our souls. All the deep 
things of life call to us — love and hope and despair — 
music, song, speech — friendship, hatred — obedience, 



30 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

disobedience! All call to us, and bid us seek the up- 
building, the eternal things. For the others are 
weights upon us, and upon humanity, and hold the 
far-off, final good from a speedier coming — hold bless- 
edness from blessing us. 

The eternal power calls to us. Its word is Har- 
mony! The Moral Ideal calls to us. Its word is Per- 
fection! The future calls to us. Its word is, Live 
Wisely Now! These voices may we follow well. 
These goals may we attain. 

And may we live not alone for ourselves, but for 
others also. 

18. 

What weakness is ours from day to day ! When 
we would do good, evil is present with us. When we 

would be strong, we fall It is because we do not 

look in the right way, and in the right places, for help 
and strength! It is because we deny our potential 
divinity, and by ignoring it give it no space to work ! 
Our souls are indeed often filled with divine upward- 
lookings. We hate the evil, and would follow the 
good. But we say to ourselves that we seem made 
so as half to rise and half to fall! — we excuse and 
dally with our sin! We seem to ourselves to be, at 
times, lords of all things, — and again, a prey to all 
things. We have no true confidence in ourselves! We 
are lacking in self-reliance! 



UPLIFTS CF HEART AND WILL. 31 

Henceforth, may we be nobler. For we know 
where victory rests! We know that the higher things 
of the spirit are the things of the true life; that the 
soul, the mind, the god-like Will — this is what makes 
us men! And that the degrading things of thought 
and of body, are the things that keep us down, keep 
us low, keep us in despair of victory. 

May we study and strive for power to overcome 
the evil in our nature — power to show forth the 
mental and spiritual in us. May we study and labor to 
gain the mastery over ourselves — to make the mental 
and spiritual the victor over the passion, the impa- 
tience, the unholy desire and ambition that hold us 
back. Thus must we do, if the power to overcome, 
which we seek, is ever ours ! And thus doing ', we 
shall be exalted. Henceforth for us there shall be 
abiding joy, which time nor human neglect nor earth's 
evil can ever take away. 

May we have a care, also, for the world about us. 
May we do what we can to uplift men. May we not 
deem ourselves weak, and so do nothing. But be 
watchful, and seize on every slightest opportunity of 
bringing joy to souls that mourn, help to those in need, 
strength to those who sin, light to those in darkness. 
May we make ourselves a human providence! 



32 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

19. 

Bowing in the overshadowing presence of the in- 
finite divine spirit which is the life and soul of all, 
we come together once again to seek for wisdom and 
strength and courage and hope. Overbrooded by 
what is more than intelligence; encompassed by what 
is more than love; enthralled by beauty and order 
that human thought is powerless to approach, — we 
seek to enter into it all, to fathom our duty as souls 
born out of it, and to live simple, earnest, natural 
lives in accord with it. 

We do not need to ask it to come to us. It is all 
about us and around us and in us. It is the breath of 
our nostrils, it is the heart-blood of our hearts, it is 
the love that animates our souls, it is the power that 
guides our thought and directs our spoken word. It 
is law, love, will, wisdom, joy, peace, blessing, holy 
ambition, lofty desire. It is everything. It is all-in- 
all. 

The infinite presence! We do not understand it! 
But we bow before it; we give ourselves up to it to 
work its highest in us. May we strive to come truly 
into accord with it — the onward-throbbing, progress- 
ive life which thrills through the worlds! May we 
be faithful to Conscience — Conscience is a part of it — 
the Moral Law within us. And may we strive for 
Wisdom to guide that Conscience, that it may throw 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 33 

its forceful, urgent, irresistible appeals upon the side 
of truth and right and goodness, on the side of jus- 
tice, of sympathy, and of daily, hourly patience and 
good-will. So shall our lives be blessed, and those 
around us enter with us into the blessing. 

May all the sorrowing, this day, find peace; all the 
needy, help; all the sinning, strength to overcome; 
all the world, light and comfort and hope. And in 
taking this great wish for man upon our lips, be it 
ours also to resolve to strive, when we go out from 
this place, to put into actual helpful operation about 
us such human forces as shall go towards bringing 
to pass the blessing which we have in our hearts. 

20. 

With gratitude we gather, to acknowledge the 
bounty of the unseen yet eternal power which is our 
life, from which come all the varied means of our 
happiness, of our development, and of our new at- 
tainment; and towards which our hearts aspire, with 
eager wish to know and solve and understand. But 
we are weak, in a world whose forces are mighty; 
we are finite, in a universe that is unlimited ; we are 
ignorant, while all about us there is the semblance of 
wisdom that is infinite. We ca?tnot yet know, or 
solve, or understand, in entirety: we can but go for- 
ward bravely every day, doing our duty faithfully 
and honestly as it meets us; searching to know more, 



34 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

yet not doubting or fearing because we know little, 
or because oftentimes there come shocks to our faith. 
" We can but trust that good shall fall, at last, — far 
off, — at last, to all, and every winter change to spring." 

And we see and know enough to occupy our every 
thought and busy our every nerve! There are things 
that we know are true; there are things that we 
know are honest; there are things that we know are 
just, pure, lovely, and of good report: may we be 
inspired to feel that here indeed is virtue, and here is 
praise, and think on these things, — striving to bring 
these things more and more into our lives, — that our 
hearts may be strengthened, our hopes enlarged, our 
lives made beautiful and sweet and strong. 

May all who mourn be comforted. May all who 
are in need find gracious helpers. May all who sin 
meet the counsel and assistance from their fellows 
which shall set their feet upon a rock. May all men, 
everywhere, be blessed — by the opening of their 
eyes and hearts to the infinite resources about them, 
and by holding to their human brotherhood. 

21. 

The brightness and cheer of another morning 
call us to look off from all evil things of care and 
weariness and disappointment; call us to place our 
affections and desires on things of spiritual hope and 
progress; — call us to look up! We are conscious 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL 35 

that our higher ideals — of happiness, of good, of 
self -growth — are often rudely shattered. We attain 
not to the things we hoped. Earth's grief and loss 
come in, and temptations to weakness; and we feel, 
perhaps, that we are losing ground, rather than gain- 
ing, in the ways of the soul. 

But may we never doubt the issue! May we still 
strive on! If material loss comes to us, may we 
know that there is something higher than mere ma- 
terial gain. If disappointment in our plans for toil, 
or for thought, comes to us, may we look for the 
nobler growth in ways of the inner life, which may 
have met us even in the very fact of our defeat: 
growth in the ways of patience, of sympathy, of 
helpfulness, of the power to be of light and cheer to 
others. Success here (may we feel), is of far greater 
worth than success there. 

So may we come to know that life is indeed to be 
counted by pulsings of mind, of soul, of will, of hu- 
man helpfulness, and not by pulsings of pride and 
fortune: that the following of the helpful, the beau- 
tiful and the lovable is more than the gaining of the 
temporal and gaudy. 

This day may thoughts, words and hopes of cheer 
and comfort come to us. May we have come here 
to be helped; and may we go away feeling that we 
have been helped — feeling that through our earnest 
search for truth, and our upward-looking, we are 



36 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

purer in heart, stronger to bear untried pain, better 
fitted for life's battles, better fitted to be a rest and 
strength to those about us. 

22. 

As the rain cometh down from the skies, and re- 
turneth not thither, but watereth the earth and maketh 
it to bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the 
sower and bread to the eater, — so are all the sure 
mercies of the eternal developing power. We are 
never left alone. We are never unprovided for by 
the general providence. Morning and evening, sum- 
mer and winter, seed-time and harvest — forever these 
go on; and forever they shall not fail while earth's 
forces last. 

Around about us, also, is the world of spirit — 
within us is the universe of soul. This hour may 
the true dignity of a redeemed humanity be present 
in our thought: a humanity redeemed through the 
power of spirit from all ignorance and avarice and 
wrong. And may all our purpose be bent to the en- 
couragement of the world, by all possible means, to 
purity, to truth, to temperance, and to good-will. 
This is what we are good for. To this may we make 
all else contribute. 

23. 

With earnest desire, this hour, we covet the best 
gifts. The fruits of the spirit we would make ours, 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 37 

which are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance. This 
is our aspiration, our great desire: that although the 
hindrances and difficulties and shortcomings of our 
lives are many, we still may struggle, ever, towards 
the right, and the just, and the pure, and throw all 
our influence on the side of truth. 

May we have courage to meet the labors of life in 
a manful spirit. May we have strength to overcome 
the evil and follow the good. Whatsoever things 
are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever 
things are just, pure, lovely, of good-report, — if there 
be any virtue, and if there be any praise, may we 
think on these things, and strive for their attainment. 

In our homes and our business may we be patient 
and faithful. Seeing need, may we strive to alleviate 
it. Wherever there is darkness may we strive to 
bring light. Whatever is crooked may we strive to 
make straight. And laboring thus with heart and 
brain for the general enlightenment and the more 
rapid upward tendency of men, may we find the 
world, through our earnest living, growing visibly a 
little cleaner, sweeter, better, nobler, and nearer per- 
fection. 

May all who mourn be comforted; all who sin be 
enabled to overcome. May darkness and doubt flee 
away, and all men enter into the light. 



38 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

24. 

With many private cares, and personal wants and 
sorrows, we come together this day, seeking for some 
uplifting word of grace and power. We are always 
in need ; and our souls are always going out after the 
Good — after the Divine — after the Moral Ideal — to 
find the strength and encouragement and trust for 
which they hunger and thirst. 

This hour may our souls find what they seek, and 
be uplifted, urged onward, exalted! 

We come also, bearing on our hearts, as always, 
the needs of our fellows! May mankind be blessed. 
May we, at least, though the whole world goes by on 
the other side, give ourselves to the task of purifying, 
in some appreciable degree, the commoner tendencies 
and morals of humanity; increasing the social welfare 
of our land , and giving the young about us a purer, 
wiser, more helpful start: this through all the little 
or large influence for good which we individually 
possess. May we be on the side, always, of the true 
and the pure; on the side of justice, and temperance, 
and honor, and honesty. Thus we shall be working, 
not only for ourselves, but for mankind, — and the 
deepest joy of life, the joy of the world-helper, shall 
come to us and bless us. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 39 

25. 

What are we, the children of the on-working 
elements, the children of the developing power of the 
worlds, in our weakness and ignorance, when we try 
to probe the secrets of the eternal progress, and lay 
them bare to our yearning gaze! We fall back baf- 
fled. " Surely it is a power that hideth itself." " O 
that we knew where we might find it, that we might 
come even to its seat!" Yet the eternal power, which 
in the far ages back made the light to shine out of 
darkness, hath shined in our hearts also, and we are 
saved by hope. We are troubled on every side, yet 
not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 
disquieted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not de- 
stroyed. Deathless in our hearts is love, and love is of 
the eternal — it shall not pass away! 

Nor is anything ever lost. There is no such thing 
in the universe as annihilation. Nothing, no matter 
what the process of disintegration and apparent death 
which sweeps down upon it — nothing is ever any- 
thing but changed, transmuted: and almost always, 
if not indeed always, into something better and 
higher. And especially is that which is already good 
and high, bound in the very nature of things in the 
universe to ascend to the better and the best. "What 
is excellent is permanent." And life, love, aspiration, 
— all the beauties and graces and possibilities of the 



4-0 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

human soul, — these are the most excellent things in 
the universe. 

May peace, therefore, and trust, be this day with all 
who mourn for loved ones gone away! Out of their 
sorrow may joy arise; out of their pain, an unlooked- 
for blessedness: a blessedness and a hope which shall 
be to them as a sentinel who moves about from place 
to place, and whispers to the worlds of space, in the 
deep night, that "All is well!" 

26. 

Surrounded — forever inclosed — by the beauty, 
and order, and beneficence of the God-power, we 
would look up and on. May our souls this morning, 
and every morning, be open to the divine. May we 
seek to-day, and every day, the things that make for 
Tightness, for purity, for peace. If in our lives day 
by day, and in our death by and by, we would be in 
true accord with the God-power which is and shall be 
forever our Being, we must seek for fellowship with 
the things of the spirit,— for the God is spirit. Too 
often, the poverty and weariness and grief of earth 
weigh us down. We are tied, body and soul, to the 
material and the worldly. 

But ever, above all earth's toil, and disappointment, 
and bereavement, we hear the voices of the Prophets 
echoing; and the voice of the God in our own souls 
urges us, too, to look beyond : to look higher, deeper, 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 41 

farther, till we come to the Heart of Things — which 
must be peace, and strength, and fullness, and every- 
thing that is satisfying, if we could only search it out 
and know it as it is. We are not orphans. The 
beatific God is our father and our mother, — the trees 
and flowers and hills are our sisters and brothers: all 
life is one; and all life is divine. 

May we live worthy of our divine origin! May 
we labor to grow in grace and truth. 

27. 

Not with ungrateful hearts for the bounty of the 
world, and for the blessings of life, would we come 
together this hour. But rather, with hearts overflow- 
ing with thanksgiving and praise to the great all- 
spirit which is the world's life, and to the long list of 
noble men and women, who, accepting in the past the 
conditions of human existence as they found them, 
and mastering the forces of nature about them, have 
through unnumbered generations combined to make 
life, for us to-day, sweet, forceful, uplifting, and full 
of opportunity. All that we have we owe to the one, 
the eternal, and to the many, the human family. May 
we be grateful to both, and strive so to use our bless- 
ings and possibilities aright, that our lives may show 
forth the greatness of our heritage. 

We would be masters of the evil about us; we 
would be workers only of the good. We know that 



42 UFLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

we might be more faithful than we are ! The sense 
of our shortcomings weighs us oftentimes down! 
May we be helped, through our own patient study 
and struggle, to attain unto greater nobility of pur- 
pose, to greater strength of will. May we resolutely 
detei'mine to give up our besetting sins, whatever they 
are; to put them away from us forever: and hence- 
forth labor only to the end of mental and spiritual 
progress, and to the exalting of the divine within 
us. 

And grateful for the heritage of the past, may we 
not be unmindful of the future. As other men have 
labored, and we have entered into their labors, may 
we see if by faithful living and earnest work we may 
not add something to the abundance we ourselves 
have found, that those who follow us may be likewise 
blessed. We can thus add — by being ourselves pure 
and true; by upholding the wise thought of modern 
lovers of humanity; by discountenancing all those 
many falsities of religion which are about us on every 
side; by reaching out a helping hand to our brothers 
and sisters in need. Be this our work! Be this our 
privilege and our joy! 

28. 

Together let us lift our hearts and our wills in 
aspiration! For without upward-looking, life is sordid 
and mean, and we should often despair. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL, 43 

Would that our eyes might be opened, and our ears, 
and our souls, to the divine spirit of the God! Then 
should we have courage and strength for all our need. 
For the God is our life, and in its presence is helpful- 
ness forevermore. And if we seek it, it is near to us, 
even in our hearts! We do not need to call it to 
come down to us, as if it were in the skies; we have 
no words that could bring it closer than it is always. 
For it is with us ever, upholding us, indwelling in us, 
urging us on. Our desire need be simply for of en- 
ness of sight. And we would urge ourselves to 
inward purity and cleanliness, — to inward earnest- 
ness, — and to outward patience and temperance and 
helpfulness, that thus we and all around us may be 
able to receive the inheritance which is ours; which 
has been ours from the foundation of the world; — re- 
ceive it, simply hv proving ourselves worthy of it and 
capable of it! 

Our hands have but to reach out, — what we seek is 
ours. Our ears have but to open, — the harmony of 
the everlasting spheres fills them full. Our eyes have 
but to unclose, — the light of lights dashes the blind- 
ness from them forever, and we sit down in the 
heavenly places of peace. We see! 

May we, then, strive, daily and hourly, for victory 
over whatever is low in us, that the high may have 
room and place. May we endeavor to root out the 
" animal " in us, and give place to the " angel " that 



44 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

may be. Patience we would make ours, for the trials 
of life. Hope we would make ours, for the encour- 
agement of the future. Faithfulness we would make 
ours, for the true living of the Now. May we be 
blest in all! And giving our wills to duty's daily 
task, our souls to belief in good, our hands to the up- 
lifting and comforting of our world-fellows, we shall 
be no longer in weariness or doubt, but shall be 
cheered and strengthened by the Light of lights, and 
in that Light we shall see light. 

29. 

In the presence of that which to us is the All-in-all; 
in the presence of that which to us is the Ideal Purity 
and Truth and Good — the ideal onward and upward 
reaching — how feeble and poor and unsatisfactory, 
often, appear our own weak lives! 

Yet we know where strength is! We kn©w 
where help lies fore verm ore. Daily we reach out 
with our hands, and take earth's blessing of sunlight 
and flower and fruit. With receptivity of soul may 
we reach out also, and find ourselves filled — our whole 
being filled — with the divine spirit which forever en- 
velops us! The voice of the God is all about us, and 
in our own hearts. The high words of the ages 
sound in our ears; the scriptures of all lands show 
forth the way. A myriad saviours reveal to us their 
own personal divine strength over temptation, over 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 45 

the power of sin and evil and sorrow, and say to us, 
"Do ye likewise overcome! For to him that over- 
cometh is the crown of life!" 

Be it ours indeed to follow on to know and do! 
To give up all selfishness and pettiness and sin — thrust 
them far from us ; and turn our hearts and wills to 
good. May we not always seek our own selfish 
pleasure only! For, so, we can never come into real 
rejoicings of spirit or divine peace of mind. We shall 
be ever in turmoil. May we know, the rather, that 
there is a higher law than that of self-pleasing, and 
that this higher law is self-denial, — willing self-sacri- 
fice for noble ends. Then, in our lives, instead of 
winds contrary, and wild seas, we shall find turmoil 
subsiding. The eternal comfort shall whisper, "Peace, 
be still! " And there shall be a great calm. 

30. 

Truth calls us, — and we follow on to know. 
Light cheers us, — we walk in its glow and warmth. 
Perfection beckons us, — gladly and determinedly we 
pursue^ that we may more nearly attain unto it! 

Around us are many high voices, urging us on. 
Henceforth may we be more faithful! Around us 
are Nature's order and beauty, thrilled through for- 
ever with her progressive laws. In that beauty mav 
we find rest and incitement; in that order, encourage- 
ment; and strength in all earth's myriad developing 



46 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL, 

forces, which forever work on as a mighty Will ! 
The little cares, and aggravations, the losses and fears 
and sins, of our daily experience, — may we resolve 
that here we will put forth will likewise : resolve that 
these things shall no longer be our masters, as in the 
past, but be held in control by us. For we are souls 
with infinite capacities! No man ever yet saw where, 
as a soul, he should have to cease to know, or do, or 
overcome. This being true, why are we content, so 
often, with the small results which we attain! with so 
little to show, from day to day, in the way of victory 
over ourselves; in the way of love, joy, peace, long- 
suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meek- 
ness, temperance! 

A divine dissatisfaction possesses us! — we gather 
this hour for words of hope and cheer and instruc- 
tion! May it be with high resolves that we have 
come together; with determination that what we learn 
this hour shall be made to have power in the strength- 
ening of our lives! 

And growing in strength ourselves, may we then 
reach out the hand of our own faith, and touch some 
other hand, — the hand of the needy, the hand of those 
in doubt, the hand of those in fear and darkness and 
all spiritual want. May we give as well as take; 
offer as well as ask. Thus we and all about us shall 
grow in good, and the good shall be our salvation 
forevermore. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 47 

In remembrance of all World-Helpers. 

As in the presence of the mighty wonders of the 
earth and heavens we stand awed, abashed, and wor- 
shipful, so do we stand in awe and aspiration in the 
presence of all mighty souls. Mountains cause our 
hearts to leap within us. The ocean casts about us a 
spell as of enchantment. The rainbow hushes us to 
silence. The stars in their courses call forth from us 
whisperings of grateful admiration at their order and 
beauty. 

So at the story of all noble prophets we bow 
humbly — in gratitude for their lives, and with desire to 
imitate their example. The history of the saint of 
India fills us with tender zeal for our fellow-men; the 
faithfulness of the martyr of Athens touches our own 
wills to earnest purpose; the story of the man of 
Galilee calls on us for admiring love, urges us to cour- 
ageous purity and energy like his, and to such faith- 
ful support of truth and progress as he evinced. So 
of all who have labored for man, — the saviours east 
and west; the prophets beyond the seas, and the 
heroes of our own land, who gave their lives for us. 

Great is our work, great is our duty, if we, like 
them, are to be of use — in the upbuilding either of 
ourselves or of humanity! May we be faithful to 
every call! Mighty is the need around about us. 
Numberless are the woes and wants of men. The 



48 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

physical, the "animal ' 3 part of man, is still strong 
within him, and overrides his higher nature. Still is 
needed the warning, persuasive cry of numberless 
World-Helpers, "Blessed are all they who seek the 
ways of purity, of peace, and of good- will! Blessed 
are all who seek the higher life, the life of the soul ; 
and who strive for the uplifting of their fellow-men ! 
For theirs is joy unspeakable; satisfaction deep 
beyond the touch of temporal disaster!" 

May all holy purpose and energy indeed be ours! 
Then, truly, we shall be led in the "Way of Life," 
and the World-Helpers shall not have lived and sac- 
rificed in vain. 

32. 

In special thought of Duty. 

In the overshadowing presence of the world-power 
we bow! It is by that we are upheld! We are its 
children! Our lips, it may be, falter when we would 
name it aright; we may not fix our eyes upon it, nor 
grasp it with our hands. But we live by it! Our 
souls know of it! And when they know of it most, 
they would embrace it the most, and strive most to be 
one with it! For so, only, comes peace. 

We would know of it to-day! And we think we 
cannot know of it better than by learning of Duty. 
It is Duty which binds us fast to the nature of things. 
In the gleam of the Moral Ideal we have the secret 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 49 

heart of the universe laid bare to us. May our aim 
be to follow that Ideal, till we come into its rest! 
There is no blessedness without struggle towards it. 
There is no peace that is not peace with it. 

And it touches our lives on every hand. We can- 
not think a thought, nor entertain a desire, nor speak 
a word, nor put a deed into act, without either beauti- 
fying, or marring, its luster. Above all, can we never 
be selfish, without deplorable damage to our souls; 
without hindering our true spiritual progress ; without 
weakening our deepest and highest possibilities of life 
and growth. Self-sacrificing we must be, when the 
happiness of others is involved, or when our own later 
and better good waits to be enhanced. Pure, temper- 
ate, chaste we must be; self-deniers of the merely 
worldly, self-deniers of the body's baser hungers, of 
the mind's inferior desires. Generous we must be, — 
full of sympathy for others; lovers of our world- 
brothers and world-sisters; never avaricious, never 
unjust, never even thoughtless of others' good. Pa- 
tient, also, with men, and with daily events, must we 
be: patient with men's weaknesses and sins; patient 
under the daily crossings and disappointments of our 
own lives, — not seeking only our ozvn self -pleasing. 
And strong must we be, moreover, on the side of 
truth and right; strong to be the helpers of the help- 
less, the teachers of the ignorant, the lifters-up of the 
abased And then — blessedness shall come to us! 



50 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

The Moral Ideal! — may we be faithful to it, at 
whatever earthly result to ourselves. Duty! — may 
we cling to it as the saviour of our souls. 

33. 

For the Passing of Winter, 

We are always in need : we are not altogether suf- 
ficient unto ourselves. What shall satisfy us? What 
shall give us the peace and blessedness for which we 
strive ? 

For months, the cold of Winter has been about us. 
We have waited for the returning sun. It climbs,, 
now, day by day, higher and higher up the heavens; 
is brighter and warmer week by week. We have 
not waited in vain. Soon the Spring will burst upon 
us with full arms of leaves and flowers. The need 
of our bodies will be satisfied. 

What shall meet the need of our souls! The 
Winter of trial, of disappointment and bereavement, 
is about us always. We wait for the all-conquering 
Light! May we have the hope and courage, this 
Easter morning, to look through Nature to Nature's 
inspiring spirit! and in the beauty and order and pro- 
gress of the universe, find a symbol of what yet shall 
be in our own souls, — if, giving up all the follies and 
dishonesties of our lives, we work individually, and 
together, to bring in the reign of honor, of virtue 
and truth, and of obedience to life's higher laws! 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 5 1 

34. 

For the Coming of Spring, 

This morning, while the sunlight, and the song of 
bird, and the springing grass-blade call us to rejoice, 
may our souls be open, as well as our eyes and ears, 
to all hopeful, helpful, divine influences! May the 
springing leaf be type of the new unfolding of our 
own higher selves. May the fragrance of the blos- 
soms now all about us, be type of the good-influence 
which shall emanate from our daily lives. May the 
sunlight type the kindness and strength which we 
shall shed abroad upon those about us. 

May all men everywhere, this day, be blest with 
peace and trust ; with hopefulness ; and with determined 
wills to do the right. And may all men reach out 
their hands in mutual helpfulness. Men must be 
pure in heart and thought; they must be honest and 
honorable in their dealings with each other. Thus 
only shall the springtide of deepest human joy ever 
be led up to, and the true life of the spirit begin. 

35. 

For the Fullness of Summer. 

Breathed upon yet once more, and animated, and 

blest, this new glad day, by the unseen, unknown, 

unfathomed Spirit of All, gladly we come together 

once again, to give voice to our soul's cry of grat- 



52 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

itude for all the blessings of life — for the order and 
beauty, and strength, and uplifting power of the na- 
ural world about us. If we did not speak, the very 
stones in the roadway would cry out! Whether we 
speak or not, the leaves upon the trees laugh and 
rustle in delight, and clap their hands; and the flowers 
in the gardens and by the roadsides wave and nod, 
and "utter joyous leaves of dark green," and scatter 
unmeasured fragrance. The rain comes down in 
gentle flow, in showers that water the earth. And 
the birds join all, with their unbroken song around 
the world, as the earth whirls east into the sun. "O 
heart of man ! canst thou not be blithe as all these are, 
and as free ? " 

This morning, how low and awful seems all evil! 
how unfitting all degrading thoughts and deeds ! how 
out of accord with the simple order and beauty of 
life, as we conceive it might be! May we seek for 
strength and courage, that henceforth our lives may 
be upright and sweet and clean — -free from all spot or 
blemish or any such thing! Spirit of beauty and 
truth! come and dwell with us! Spirit of progress! 
inspire us! Spirit of good! spirit of purity and holi- 
ness and good-will and earnest purpose and lofty de- 
sire ! take up thy abode with us ! 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 53 

36. 

For a Memorial Service. 

Again, at the developing call of the spirit of 
progress, we are brought to face the great Mystery of 
life and death: and we feel ourselves as little children 
who look up at the sky and wonder what is and is to 
be; whence we came, and why we are here, and 
whither we go? Yet is there, in our hearts, nothing 
of fear or dread or dismay ! We know we are " in 
the bosom of life and universal brightness "; we know 
that we go on and up from life to life — since the forces 
of God are eternal. Eye indeed hath not seen, nor 
ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to 
conceive, the detail of the things that shall be — the 
things that are " prepared." But from the things 
which we do see, we trust the things that shall be. 
And we see, around us ever, order and beauty and 
progress — which we feel cannot but mean order and 
beauty and progress for evermore. The power which 
developed us, which brought us to be, is mighty 
enough and great enough to care for us ever. And to 
whatever part of the wide universe our souls may 
escape, we know that we cannot be beyond the scope 
of beneficence and care, of upbuilding and progress. 
Safe now, we are safe ever. Then indeed may our 
hearts rest confident. We may be at peace, and may 
trust both for life and for death. 



54 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

Human love is ours, also. So that to each other, 
in our hours of darkness, we reach out hands of fel- 
lowship. May we repose on each other's love and 
sympathy; and in the mutual stress of life, its hope 
and its doubt, we shall find calmness coming into our 
hearts, rest into our souls, clear vision into our minds. 
We shall not doubt, but go forward courageously, and 
even in the Valley of the Shadow find joy. 

May all this indeed come to us, and may we all 
be blest! 

37. 

For a Me?norial Service, 

In the presence of the eternal power and mystery 
we bow — in the presence of the mighty reality, the 
spirit-energy of the universe, whose children we are ! 
in whose throbing bosom exists the mystery of Life; 
within whose secret bosom lies the mystery of Death ! 
Recognizing our ignorance, yet rejoicing in our hope; 
feeling our weakness at this presence again in our 
midst of the Messenger which calls away this our 
dear friend from our earthly sight, — we join our tears, 
our sympathy, and our hopes, looking for light and 
encouragement and consolation and faith and trust. 
Now we see as through a glass, darkly. But we feel 
this is not all. We are confident this is not all. And 
we follow on to know. 

We believe that all things work together for final 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 55 

good, — all things throughout the universe. Pain is 
an evil, while it lasts. Sorrow and loss; lack, of any 
kind; fear and doubt, sickness and death, — looked at 
nakedly, these seem evils likewise. But looked at 
largely, all things indeed, we feel, work together for 
final good. The universe as a whole goes on at all 
because it is good and not bad, or more good than 
evil. And we dwell even now in Eternity, which is 
made of time. The things of time are the things of 
Eternity. The power divine and infinite which is 
our life, the spirit-energy of the worlds, the mystery 
of eternal being, which we call "God," is around 
about us and over us and in us now, as much as it will 
ever be. May we therefore trust it now, and believe 
it good, even in this our time of great need, although 
indeed we may seem to see at present only clouds and 
darkness; even though we seem utterly to fall with 
our load of care, upon the world's great altar-stair 
that slopes upward and out towards the eternal ! We 
will trust the Heart of Good, and look towards the 
future hopefully ! 

May peace and trust be with all these who mourn! 
With heart of sympathy we reach out our hands, and 
clasp theirs; assuring them of our love and good- will, 
and desiring that out of their sorrow joy may arise, 
out of their pain, and unlooked-for blessedness: a 
blessedness and a hope, which shall be to them a 
saving power. 



POEMS. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL, 

Uplifts of eager heart and earnest will! 

Pulsings of soul! — 
These, in their high, unintermittent surge, 

Make Being whole. . . . 

Surgings of Spirit tow'rds the unknown source 

Whence cometh all; 
Surgings of Will to Duty, fair or hard, 

Whate'er befall : 

Ambitions high, to follow nobly out 

The earthly Real; 
Resolves no less to breathe heaven's purer air — 

The far Ideal! 

Strugglings for self — to win and nobly use 

Time's fairer good; 
Strugglings sublime for others — to make fact 

Man's brotherhood! 

Not surgings for an hour to rush and roar, 

And then subside; 
But higher, holier surgings, that shall pour 

In endless tide. . . . 

These are the Race, the Goal, the Home, the God, 

In all earth's strife; 
These are and shall be ever, soul of our soul., 

Life of our life. 

(57) 



58 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 



THE PASSAGE. 

Whence ca?ne these words I may not note . • • 

/ walked beneath the tranquil stars; 

A Voice, as from their golden bars, 
Said c< Write! " to me; — / therefore wrote, 

E 'en yet I feel the tremulous thrill! 

I tread again the fine-clad hill! 

Geneva, Illinois, April, 1887, 

A mystery? — true; yet I fear not to go. 
Nothing harsh can be. Indeed, when I know 

We are never alone, — that within us and out 
Throbs ever the Might that engirds us about; 

That the Power which developed us reigns through all. 
A limitless Sea — not a vertical Wall; 

When I learn how the Forces of Death and Life 
Interplay forever, yet are never at strife ; 

When I know that the Order and Beauty around 
With the Life of the All-Life ever abound; 

That every bird on yonder tree 

Is thrilled a-through with God's own glee; 

That every leaf beside our path 
A message from the Eternal hath; 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 59 

That every gleam from human eye 

Is a gleam of the All- Soul's Mystery, — 

Fain would I leave this house of clay, 
To travel with God on his endless way, 

To whirl with the atom, or dance with the light, 
Or glow in a star to illumine earth's night. 

Things fail not. Though earth-life has passage like 

dreams 
The Order Eternal yet pulses and streams. 

I say not " soul " passes ! I only can know 
That pass if it must, 'tis to else it will go. 

It cannot be lost. It is bound up with All ; 

And while anything lasts shall the Soul of things fall ? 

Come, Death! For him thou hast terrors nor pains 
Who deems, though he vanish, he deathless yet 
reigns ! 

Spencer, Mass., August, 1885. 



60 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL, 



GOD AND MAN. 

Where is Beauty? Where is Grace? 

Their strength what Power embodies? 
Look within a human face, — 

Where love and help are, God is. 
Seek this mystery to trace ! — 
Heaven and earth its lines embrace, 
Souls, and suns, and stellar space. 

Wondrous is the mighty Power 
In which we have our being! 

Every day and every hour 

Brings joy for hearing, seeing; 

Joy of stream and star and flower, 

Joy of sky-flung spectrum-bower, 

Planet-haze and atom-shower. 

Love, no less, of human hearts, 
Which makes all life worth living, 

From the One, the Only, starts, 
Man's highest glory giving. 

This to know transcends all arts, — 

From the Whole, the partial darts; 

Man's love God's love counterparts. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 6l 



STRUGGLE. 

'Tis well, O heart, no life of ease 

Before thee opens fair! 
That perfect life would fail to please 
Which breathed but softer air. 

'Tis not when zephyrs kindly blow, 

And calmly, sweetly steal; 

When waters musically flow, 

And laugh along the keel; 

'Tis in the dashing of life's wave, 

And in the sudden shock; 
9 Tis when the soul, though stout and brave, 

Is ground as on the rock, 

That life's objective port is neared, 

Its noblest courses run, 
And souls of men the straightest steered 

To Isles of inward Sun. 



62 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 



THE HELPER. 

He who the light to one dark soul shall bring, 
Among the sons of men is more than king. 



No word thou utterest, or good or ill, 

But sounds forever, — wild or soft or shrill, — 

Fast held within the vibrant air's embrace. 

If words of thine shall brighten one sad face, 

Thine accents ease a brother's heavy load, 

Thy daily task reveal where Truth is strowed, 

Then rest content! For there shall come a year 

(And soon shall come) when back into thine ear 

With ten-fold power thy words, or ill or good, 

Shall speed with force that may not be withstood. 

Then happy thou, if in thine ear shall ring 

Words that shall crown thee servant, — helper, — king! 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 63 



MORNING. 

O upward-springing Morning light! 
Forth-bursting from the caves of Night 
To dissipate earth's pall and gloom, 
And for man's ways and work make room ! 

Beneath thy all-enkindling ray 
Our souls expand to greet the Day, 
And fain would catch, on Wisdom's road, 
The light to Life's serene abode! 

When shall man's acts be based on Law, 
Till nations show nor stain nor flaw ? 
Nor man from Virtue's fairer heights 
Be held by ancient appetites? 

O flame of ever brightening Truth ! 
Earth's waywardness, as of its youth, 
Dispel, revealing manhood's strength, 
That life diviner be at length ! 



64 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 



LIFE'S BEAUTY. 

Oh, when often in my bosom 

Glows a longing for life's Beauty, 

Something in me whispers, — urging,— 
" 'Tis incentive to life's Duty ! 
'Tis high impetus to Duty!" 

And I know the voice speaks truly! 
For high peace finds never mortal 
Save in strong, sublime endeavor 

Worshipful at Duty's portal; 

Steadfast, meek, at Duty's portal. 

Flame, then, in my bosom, Beauty! 

Flame and glow with fire supernal! 
Thou shalt lead me — willing go I ! — 
To life's blessedness eternal, 
Unto joys ideal, eternal ! 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 65 



BEACON-LIGHTS, 



The brilliant beacon-lights that bound the shore 
Guide safe the storm-tossed mariner to port: 
What matter, green or gold, or tall or short? 
What matter, shown from rock, or bluff, or tower? 

He questions not their color, size, or power, 
But heeds their warning with his every thought: 
He heeds their warning and the ship is brought 
To home and harbor in a happy hour. 

Along the headlands of Life's turbulent sea 
Aye gleam undimmed the guiding lights of Love! 
What matter, Jew, Greek, Christian, if the Light 

Be followed faithfully? — It then shall be 
A Guiding Light indeed, to ports above: 
A pillar of cloud by day, of fire by night. 



66 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 



THYSELF WITHIN. 

Amid the ceaseless loss and change 

Of time and friends and all below — 

(O things we love ! how swift ye go! 

O things that are ! how new and strange !)- 

Ah, whither shall our spirits range 

A more Eternal life to know! 

In Syria, Ind or Egypt sought, 

One answer only have the years 

Sent down to banish doubts and fears: — 

Within Thyself must Heaven be caught 

And captive held, — or all is tears! 

For this saints died and martyrs fought. 

Thyself within! Thyself within! 

O friend! find here thy strength, thy peace. 

Pray not that loss and change may cease, — 

Pray, rather, higher heights to win! 

Thy spirit's Godward wings release, 

And soar thee where thou art akin! 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL, 67 



WORLD-TRUST. 

Through thickest sea-coast fog we ploughed our 
way, 

With added darkness of the night around; 

A watery rod or two was all the bound 
O'er which on either side our eyes might play. 
The ebb and rising of the billows gray 

Monotonously smote, with scarce a sound: 

But overhead shone stars on bluest ground, 
That guided us to safety in the Bay. 

O stars of Hope! that in the human heart 

Have always somewhere shone with light un- 
dimmed! 
Through hours begloomed ye strike your cheer- 
ing dart, 
And with the night-songs trusting saints have 
hymned 
Cause our anxiety and pain to flee, 
In peace on-leading us o'er life's dim sea. 



68 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

"PREPARED." 

I know not why good men should say 
That he who dreams a dream divine, 
And seeks it, soulful, "does not pray" ! 
That he who still sees Beauty shine 
Thro' all life's ill, and flowers entwine 
With solar glow to hide earth's gray, 
Is drunk with "irreligious" wine — 
Because he does not "pray"! 

Nor know I why good men should sigh, 
Deeming him far from good and God 
Who yet in darkness hears Love's cry; 
In lambent orb and lowliest sod 
Progressive Purpose can descry, — 
A Presence broad and deep and high 
Finding alike in soul and clod, — 
A "very present" God! 

I know not why good men have sought 
To speak him "Christless" who yet goes 
In paths the Galilean taught, — 
Seeking what he his neighbor owes, 
Striving poor lives with misery fraught 
To heal of something of their woes. . . . 
"But ah! he cries not 'Lord/ — and ought! 
This man of 'Christless' thought!" 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 69 

Well! o'er him flushes golden sky! 
Better than night he loves the day. 
He dwells in the "divine," say I. 
And oh, he has no need to pray — 
More than his want is the supply! .... 
So, "doing the Will," and "knowing the 

Way," 
He standeth needy world-souls nigh, — 
"Prepared" to live or die. 



CYPRESS-CROWNED. 

To-day the winds of March are wild. 
The swallows huddle ' neath the shore; 
Their wings are still — they cannot fly. 
But yonder, whirled about the sky, 
The gulls are circling o'er and o'er: 
The gull is Ocean's passive child. 

The winds of Fate adversely blow. 
My friends and fellows do not sing; 
They sing but when the waves are calm, 
I look not always for the palm, 
I take what laurels Fate may bring; 
With cypress crowned sometimes I go. 



JO UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

"BE YE PERFECT." 

I dreamed the statue of a god 
Stood high in every market-place, 
That all who thither toiling trod 
Might see the beauty of a face 
Noble, and freed in every trace 
From want, from selfishness, from sin. 
Yet seemed it of the human race, 
Nor wholly difficult to win. 

Indeed, thrice daily, morn, noon, night, 
To all the hurriers to and fro 
Each statue spake : " The Cosmos bright, 
Each gracious force — above, below — 
Earth's possibilities but show ! 
Man can attain whate'er he feels ; 
Up to the heights 'tis yours to go ; 
Your gods are but your high ideals." 

Is this the Vision of the Race ? 
This its high nobleness of heart ? 
Be ours to win that finer grace, 
Ours to do valiantly our part ! 
Thus from the race's ranks shall start 
The sonship truly of the Best, 
And Love's divine and perfect art 
Henceforth be man's redeeming quest. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 71 



THE TRANSCENDENT POSSIBILITY. 

Amid a treeless prairie vast 

A horseman stayed at set of sun: 

With eyes far strained o'er shadows dun 

He swept the waste his steed had passed, 

And onward, o'er the path to be, 
And there and here, on every side. 
But naught in Nature's round replied; 

His gaze met blank obscurity* 

Yet, ah, the man was Nature's child! 
He trusted Her who gave him birth: 
He laid him on the flower-spread earth 

Amid the grewsome vastness wild. 

He knew not he should wake again: 
To wake or sleep he knew was good. 
In love with air and sea and wood 

His eyes he shut to dreams of men. 

His arm for pillow — this was all; 
Uncovered lay he on earth's breast: 
But rested he with gracious rest, 

And o'er him gleamed the star-set wall. 



72 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

A SONG OF DEGREES. 

1878—1892. 
I. Verses Written on Entering Theological School — 1878= 
all hail! auspicious morning! 

All hail! auspicious morning! 

Thou bring' st a glad new day! 
Fade fast, earth's lights of warning, — 

Thy dimness loses sway! 
Far vanishes Night's sadness, 

The earth and skies have voice; 
Mankind awakes to gladness, — 

"Rejoice!" he cries, "Rejoice!" 

All hail, auspicious morning 

That bring'st this glad new day! 
Life's doubt and evil scorning, 

We bid all fear away! 
We welcome Peace and Beauty; 

To Wrong we cry, Depart; 
And unto Strength and Duty 

We open wide our heart. 



II. On Beginning to Meet Theological and Doctrinal 
Difficulties. — 1880. 

lights of god. 

Upward my eyes I turn, 
And lights of God I see. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 73 

Not only orbs of heaven that burn, 
But inward flashings free. 

Yea, children though we are 

Of Heights and Depths unknown, 

Love is for aye our Beacon-star — 
We are not left alone. 

Turn we our hearts aright, 

Love guides our upward thought. 

Comes even in the darkest night 
The answering, mystic Ought. 

And 'tis a cheering Voice, — 

Mighty as Angel's sword: 
"Rejoice, O sons of men! Rejoice! 

I am thy sure reward! " 

O Lights of God, burn clear! 

In gloom our courage save! 
Light us, O Love divine and dear; — 

No higher heaven we crave. 



III. On Being Rebuked, while in Theological School, for 
Reading Herbert Spencer. — 1881. 

"from everlasting to everlasting." 

Presence Divine and Life of All ! 

Shall seeking Thee indeed cast down ? 
Shall hammer's knock on granite wall 

Be answered only by Thy frown ? 



74 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

Shall gazing at the wondrous height 
Illumined by thy countless stars, 

Indeed condemn us to a Night 

Of pain far worse than prison-bars? 

Shall tracing eons of the rise 

Of Man from lowliest orders back, 

Rejoicing in his upturned eyes, 

Be deemed a sin condign and black? 

Nay! Life Supreme! Creative Grace! 

In these Thy Revelation shows! 
In these still speak'st Thou to the race, 

As erst in Sharon's dewy rose. 

And still we seek Thee, Power Divine, 
As each new day Thy wonders rise! 

Each hour Thy glories fairer shine, 
With fresh Revealings to our eyes. 

So be it ever! Yea, we need 

Not fear Thy Word shall e'er be o'er. 

And we, as Thou our souls dost feed, 

Shall know and love and praise Thee more. 



IV. Written after a Course of Study in "Christian Evi- 
dences" as Popularly Taught in Theological 
School.— 1882. 



"signs and wonders. 



I ask not "miracles" to guard my faith 

And keep it from the clutch of grim Despair! 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 75 

To me a miracle is but a wraith, 

While Gracious Fact is mine in earth and air. 

In Nature's Constancy I find my joy; 

I know that Good has been, will always be, 
And now in manhood, even as a boy, 

I ask but Natural Opportunity. 

I ask but still the rosy light of Morn, 

The strength that after rest makes labor sweet; 

To know the simpler deeds that life adorn, 
That I may follow with glad, willing feet. 

Beauty doth everywhere paint sights for me, 
Raising the dead at heart to life divine; 

I view the dawn-winds walking on the sea, 
Suns in rich vineyards making water wine. 

Concentric circles of earth, wave and sky, 
Cut by the fair horizon's purple rim, — 

All come as miracle, — as such go by, — 

And all compel from me the grateful hymn. 

The laws Mind follows to Thought's farthest zone 
In conquest over Nature's secrets vast, — 

These, too, I know who studieth makes his own, 
Gaining rare triumphs that his life outlast. 

The fossils in the rocks I count my prize, — 
More eloquent by far than o'erwrit "Text"! 

They are God's own Epistle for man's eyes, 
Not records fifty scribbling monks have vext. 



y6 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

And yonder Lights! . . . .O tireless-swinging Orbsl 
Not in a trillion years one hair's-breadth free 

From paths the Energy which all absorbs 
Marked out from vast eternities for thee! — 

A "Bible" ye indeed ! wherein I scan 

Forces which never tire, retrace nor bend; — 

From which I solve, or seem to solve, for Man, 
The Law on-urging him to some fine end. 

Nor these alone, but thousand sounds and signs, 
Around, beneath, within, in soul and clod, — 

A child's sweet kisses, Summer's purpling vines,— 
Alike proclaim the ever-present God. 

.. ..So onward go I, silent in the crowd; 

I hear the clamor, but I answer not. 
What harm to me their whisperings low or loud! 

The Law Eternal can they change a jot? 

And for the rest, — our own small arc of Time, — 
Though little know I, much I hope and trust. 

At any rate, mine now the Power Sublime, 
Not into cycles dead and distant thrust! 

Yea, for the rest I am content to know 

For ages yet shall Spring nor Autumn cease; 

While, East or West, — where'er I turn or go, — 
A voice in pines, in wheat-lands, whispers 
"Peace!" 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 77 

Let others in dim child-world dreamings dwell, 

Still bolstering bravely up their marvelous 

tales, 

Roaming through Purgatories, Heavens and Hell 

With faith that must have "miracles" or 

fails! — 

Ample for me is Nature's hourly wealth, 

Her Present wonders,— helpful, lavish, sure! 

With these, and open eyes, my soul finds health; 
Through life and death my victories endure. 



On Being Refused Fellowship and Liberty to 
Preach.— 1883. 

TO TRUTH— MY GOD. 

Till ages fail, 

And love receives its own; 
Till eons pale, 

And faith is wiser grown, 
Be Truth my God, 

I may not always live 

My high Ideal 
But high resolve I give, 

Come woe or weal, 
To Truth — my God. 

And thus, I feel, 

My soul shall never fail! 



78 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

The buds that heal 

Pass not with frost or hail, — 
They grow to more! 

And though eye may be dim, 

And sense be weak, 
My heart still chants its hymn, 

Soul joy doth speak — 
God more and more. 



VI. On Going Forth, Not Knowing Whither. — 1883. 

earth's golden prime lies infinitely on. 

"If ye continue in my word," said he 

Who walked of old through flower-sprent Galilee, 

"The truth ye then shall know." Ah, Teacher 

great! 
Thy word the world's late years still illustrate! 

Thy Gospel was of simplest thought and deed: 
Two Words alone thy all-embracing Creed, — 
To Seek! to Love! The truth of God to seek; 
In love for man that truth of God to speak. 

"And ye have heard it said of olden time, 

<Lo, this!' <Lo, that!' But, nay! Earth's golden 

prime 
Lies infinitely on, where none can see. 
A New Commandment, therefore, give I thee. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 79 

"New days require new thoughts, new words, 

new works. 
Blasphemer he who those new meanings shirks! 
Shall men forever only backward glance? — 
That were to serve but shame and ignorance. 

"The truth that is, I come not to destroy: — 
But truth's New Meaning is my high employ! 
The Past did well — it could but blindly see. 
As it to That, to This be faithful we!" 

O Lover wise on hills of Palestine! 

If still the power to Seek and Love be thine, 

What joy thou hast, though Truth thyself o'er- 

arch, 
That Man still hastens on his upward march! 



VII. Eight Years Later. — Signs of the Times. — 1891. 
THESE CREEDS' O'ERTURNING SODS. 

The Highest Truth is ever Word of God. 

"My doctrine is not mine," said he of old, 
"But His that sent me." And the fabled rod 

Which Moses wielded was not his, 'twas told. 
But "symbol," only, of a Vaster Power, 
Which feebly he forthshadowed for an hour. 

Ah, much too much ourselves we separate 
From the Divine Effulgence which is All! 

A Deity far off we paint, and prate 
Of God as hid behind dividing wall. 



80 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

Nay, such as this is shadow drear and dun— 
A glow-worm dimness, not the wondrous Sun. 

No Word of Good was ever breathed not God's ! 
No stroke for Freedom but God held the arm! 
Oh, then, To-day! these Creeds' o'erturning 
sods — 
They token Heaven's high shouts, not Hell's 
alarm. 
O let us deem Man's own best Word of Hope 
Still God's true Word, and Man's best horoscope. 



VIII. Epilogue.— 1892. (1. In Retrospect.) 

MY ROSE OF SEARCH. 

The years pass quickly — Truth is hard to find. 
From youth my soul with thongs I would not 

bind — 
But am I farther on to-day than those 
Who, faithless, tried to pluck from me my rose — 
My fair, white, opening rose of loving Search, 
That they might bury it in Mother Church? 

Ease meanwhile has been theirs — and struggle 

mine! 
I have had crusts, and they life's cakes and wine. 
Yet, ah! My rose! Its fragrance has been sweet! 
Ne'er has it failed to blossom at my feet; — 
And oft its petals have expanded wide 
And shown me Angels walking by my side. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 8l 

(2. In Prospect.) 
AH, CONCLAVES, COUNCILS! 

Ah, Conclaves, Councils! "In the name of God" 
Ye judge your fellows, wielding creedal rod! 

"As servants of the Meek of Galilee" 
Ye measure men — but not by his decree! 

Up, and awake! Ye strive in vain to stay 
With banning words the Sunrise of To-day. 

Still "who is not against" is on Truth's side, 
And with him Angels ever shall abide. 






82 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

LIFE. 

Oft, when I have walked at dawning by the 

margin of the sea, 
Of the hopefulness of Nature it has sung its song 

to me. 

With a soul tow'rds light determined I have 
sought its secret word, 

And its accents have been music I have else- 
where never heard. 

True, the sea itself is "cruel" — never shrinks 

it back for pain. 
But its tide-falls cleanse the continents, its mists 

bring tender rain. 

So throughout the whole of Nature, — there is 

evidence of good, 
Bringing progress out of chaos, smiling fields 

where oceans stood. 

And 'tis thus — a meaning finding even in its 
harshest strife — 

That I follow onward cheerly through this won- 
drous thing called life. 

Life! whose warp is ceaseless effort, while its web 

is Progress still, 
As it was through countless epochs ere the world 

knew human Will. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 83 

Life! the symphony whose harmony would lan- 
guish into death 

If it never knew the discord which brings out its 
sweeter breath. 

Life! the fair and boundless continent, amid whose 

sunlit ways 
We enact heroic dramas, living nobly-eager days. 

True, our petty "titles" vanish — but we live not 

for a "name"; 
To exist in added world-good were a thousand 

times the fame! 

And we know we cannot act a deed of good or 

deed of ill, 
But its ends, accruing ever, through eternities 

shall thrill. 

He who, aching, tills the cornfield, in whatever 

valley far — 
Nobler he in manhood's best than any war-left 

living scar. 

Toiling poet, humble scient, seeking Mother 

Nature's best — 
In the growing good of ages far outweigh they all 

the rest. 

Nobler he than lords of wealth, who in the smart 
of modern need 



84 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

Reaches lowly hand of help to bridge the stream 
of human greed. 

So on life's unmeasured rim we nobly act, nor 

seek return; 
While before us, steadfast ever, Hope's eternal 

torches burn. 

And 'tis worth the struggle! ....Faithless! faith- 
less of our Mother Nature's power 

To sit down with dull despairings, and to hope- 
less wail an hour! 

Are not we a part of Nature? Then to us the 

new-age call 
The long prayer of years to answer, and on earth 

bring peace for all. 

Here no room for "floating foam-wreaths wafted 

down from moonlit shores": 
Here the summons to work desperate while the 

hot sun deadly pours! 

Brothers! know ye not men languish for the help 

that you can give? 
Spend your years in action, action, that a dead 

world may new-live. 

Let who careless will "pledge wine-cup at the 
banquet or the rout": 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 85 

There our place is — to bring joyance to those 
hungry eyes without. 

O the happiness of living, when we claim a lofty 

work! 
Tis in faithful future Doing that the good of man 

shall lurk. 

Life shall then have Purpose for us — we shall see 
it is divine; 

And in fact, not dreamings longer, will the "flower- 
wreathed Aidenn" shine. 

Not in vain we seek Life's meaning. If we lift 

our heedful eyes 
Voices everywhere enthrall us — the whole universe 

replies. 



86 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 



IN ADMIRATION OF WORLD-HELPERS. 

O earnest Fathers ! Sweet-faced Sisterhood ! 
Martyrs and Saints of whate'er faith or dress 
Who through the years left no man comfortless ; 

In thought of others — self in self subdued — 

Striving to make mankind more pure and good ; 
Fain by the warning word or breathed caress 
To stay earth's evil and perfidiousness ; 

Censured and scourged ; sans bread and habitude ! 

Would that To-day — this trebly fine To-day — 

We thy helped brothers 'mid the world's mad strife 
Might through thy love and sacrifices rare 
Be led to walk thy same strong, towering way : 
Calming the world that hungereth for life 
By breath of Brotherhood's supernal air. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 8? 



TIMES OF REFRESHING. 

The parched earth cried for moisture, — lanes were 
dust, 

And every tree and flower was thick begrimed. 

" We seek not rain in vain," they trustful rhymed, — 
The clouds beseeching, " Surely soon ye must ! " 
For yet was hope ; and leaves, though clothed in rust, 

Still in the south wind musically chimed 

(Full of rare rustling memories happier-timed), 
"Nature is good, her tenderness we trust." 

And skies bowed low, Pan showed refreshing face, — 
Speaking no less to souls, as wrapt in shrouds, 
As parched for God's regenerating voice ! 
Oh, seek we where All-fullness has its place ; 

And, e'en though healing comes not without clouds 
And darkness, soon we also shall rejoice. 



88 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 



MY FEATHERED PREACHER. 

All day my maples in the blast have bowed ; 

The sleet howls lustily through shivering limbs ; 

Yet e'en though ice the creaking branches rims, 
Here from my window watch I him so proud, 
Busy and bustling ! Full and sweet and loud 

His warbling cheer the wintry whistling dims. 

So amid persecution rose the hymns 
Of dearest trust from Christians newly vowed. 

Soul of my soul ! for secret, sheltered nook 
Must thou forever pray when blasts are nigh 
And howling passions, seeking thee, stream by ? 

Nay, O my soul, in the gale's teeth dare look ! 
Singing and fighting lift undismayed thy din : 
Only undaunted hearts scale heaven and win. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 89 



AFTER THE PALM AND CHEER. 

After the palm and cheer — the scoff and cross ! 

But his were Love and Innocence who bore. 

Ah ! what of those, the Wilful, 'mid the roar 
Of passionate ills that mark their pain and loss ! 
Sinning, transgressing, they seem to wear the crown ; 

Joyous they laugh, and dream, " 'Tis victory." 

Ah ! but the awful sequence of their glee 
Drags them and strips them, fainting, shuddering, 
down. 

There — the world's Helper, pierced by scorners who 
With evil hands uplifted him, the Pure : 
Here — the maimed throng whose mangled lives 
endure 

Only the nails themselves drove thoughtless through. 
Ah, even than that Central Scaffold drear, 
Sadder the crosses for ourselves we rear ! 



90 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

STAR AND CROSS. 

" The time has come when all men shall be free ! " 
Thus in my dream an Angel spake to me : 
An Angel on whose forehead gleamed a star, — 
Beneath whose feet reclined a shattered spar. 

Bright was her countenance, though dread her word ! 
Raptured I gazed, yet shuddered as I heard : 

" I am Inspirer of the Modern Seer : 

Science, — ' Star-eyed/ men call me — and do well ! 

Secrets of Past and Coming Time I tell ; 

Earth's child-conceptions fade now I am here ! 

In hope foundationless, alterne with fear, 

Before the central scaffold of the years 

Full long a time a thoughtless world has bowed. 

Now see we clearer ! clearer still shall see ! 

Down with the Cross ! — here, wrap it in its shroud ! 

Haste ye, and bear it — wet with wasted tears — 

Futile as sign of Immortality — 

To Arimathean Joseph's rock-cut tomb 

(Where he for Greatness made in love fair room), 

And fling it where its Victim's ashes be ! 

The Star henceforth be symbol — stars give light : 

The Cross's origin was Lust and Night." 

The vision smiled, and light upon me broke. 

But some — " It thundered, not an Angel spoke ! " 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 91 



NEO-RESURRECTION. 

Rise, Son of Man ! triumphant over death ! 

Rise, Jesus, Helper, over scoff and frown ! 

Earth nor its sepulchres shall keep thee down 
While single human spirit pants for breath. 
Up the high Heaven of Love, Lover, ascend ! 

There with thy angel-kindred hold commune : 

Then to the earth descend again full soon 
And heavenly courage to thy brethren lend. 
For verily thy brethren, all, are we : 

Thyself us also hath called " Sons of God " ! 
We know not yet the mighty Mystery, 

But with thee even now we spurn the sod 
And rise to heights that only spirit knows, 
Where, from the Source of Comfort, comfort flows. 

Easter Morning. 



92 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

ALPHA AND OMEGA. 

Dim in the dark ^Eonian caves, 

Deep in the Night of earliest Time, 

There trembled low beneath the waves 

A mimic protoplasmic sphere, — ■ 

A globule small, whose curve severe 
Bore in its heart a germ sublime. 

Naught else in all the universe 

Such germ possessed as glowed in this ; 
A germ whose warmth would soon disperse 
The gloom which bound earth's silent corse : 
The germ sublime of deathless Force ! — 
Earth's mystery of mysteries. 

Lichens and moss now found a place — 
Or whence or how, what tongue may tell ? 

And ferns and grasses filled the space 

Where erst dull clods and dust had been ; 

While rustling leaves, with lips unseen, 
Called to the Ages, " All is well." 

Lizards and dragons, monstrous forms, 

Sights that men's eyes would shrink to see ! 

Shrieks above elemental storms 1 — 

Ah ! through what pain was life evolved ! 

Only through death and conquest solved, — 
Struggle and blood and agony. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 93 

But see ! a kindlier hour should come ! 

Rapine and force sank, shrinking, low ; 
Thought, invention, showed fairer sum. 
Hither came Man ! — yes, crude indeed, 
But climbing to heart and mind with speed. 

On him the gods their best bestow. 

Love, aspiration, — powers sublime ! 

Sympathy, help, — these Now have place. 
O for the years of Coming Time / 
What shall they bring of better yet ? 
Courage ! not yet man's sun is set. 

Good is in store for all the race. 



DREAM-COUNSEL. 

I dreamed of thee last night, 

Brother and friend — 
And all the sky was light 

And without end ! 
Thou seemed with wisdom fraught, 

Companion mine ; 
And, joyous, I was taught 

In things divine. 



94 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL, 

I came to thee in care, 

From wearying mart : 
We parted light as air, 

And glad of heart. 
Where disappointment's pain 

Had weighed me low. 
Thou changed the evening rain 

To sunrise-glow. 



Where I — because my strife 

For Truth and Day 
Seemed fruitless, and my life 

But thrown away — 
Was downcast and in tears, 

With cheering voice 
Thou banished all my fears, 

And cried, " Rejoice ! 



" Rejoice ! it is the quest, 

'Tis not the art 
Of gaining ends, that best 

Fulfils life's part. 
What though for thee the rain, 

The briar and burr ? 
Oh, surely not in vain 

Thy strugglings were. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 95 

" Through years thy aim, thy call, 

Has been for things 
Exalted over all 

That ' Comfort ' sings. 
' Truth/ 'Duty/ 'Good/ thy words, 

And ' Boldness ' too, 
Beyond what common herds 

Yet ever knew. 



" In peace, then, sleep, this night, 

O troubled heart ! 
Though low, yet is thy plight 

The better part. 
And when, at last, immured 

In earth for Rest, 
Thy soul shall be assured 

The strife was best." 



So spake thou to me, friend, 

Within my dream, 
Showing the nobler end 

To be, not seem. 
Content, then, I, to dare, 

Without success ! 
Though poverty my share, 

I've blessedness. 



96 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

MAN. 
A Phantasy ? 



He does not think — he does not know : 
A wave is breaking on the shore ; 
A wave surcharged with richest ore, 

And tinged with deepest golden glow. 

He heeds it not — he does not know : 
It scatters pearls athwart his path ; 
It bathes as in a purple bath 

The boundaries where his feet must go. 

He heeds it not — he passes by : 

It breaks, it bursts upon the strand ; 
Its wealth is squandered on the sand; 

Its pearls in shattered fragments fly. 



II. 



He does not know — he does not guess : 
A flower is blossoming at his feet ; 
A flower is offering incense sweet — 

And fading in the wilderness. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 97 

He heeds it not — he passes on : 

Its purple petals droop and die ; 

Its wealth is wasted on the sky : 
It might have bloomed by Helicon. 

III. 

He does not know — he does not dream : 

A star is gleaming in the sky ; 

A star that passeth swiftly by ! 
A star that flames alone for him. 

He sees nor feels its cheering light : 
It glows and gleams indeed, to-day ; — 
To-morrow, deepening into gray, 

Shall find it vanished in the Night. 

IV. 

He does not dream — he does not think : 

A fountain gushes at his hand ; 

Its wealth he does not understand : 
He looks nor moves, nor stoops to drink. 

V. 

He does not think — he does not know : 
A song is trembling through the air ; 
A bird is warbling anthems rare, 

And murmuring lyrics sweet and low. 



98 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

He hears nor heeds — he passes on : 
And wings are raised — a birdling flies 
The trembling cadence fails and dies : 

The anthem and the bird are gone. 



VI. 



He does not know — he does not dream : 
A wave, a flower, a star, a song, 
A fountain — all to him belong, 

And all exist alone for him. 



UP HIGHER. 

ACCEPTANCE OF AN INVITATION. 

Brother and Lover ! whom I soon shall see : 

Whose call I follow to learn Liberty ! 

The noon-day terror calleth me on wings 

To where the pine upon Monadnock sings. 

I toil and sweat, as thou amid the hay, 

But lack what gives the beauty to thy day — 

Fragrance of clover, coolness in the deeps 

Beneath low branches where the long grass creeps, 

And — most of all — the high horizon's rim, 

Where, swathed in beauty, the snow islands swim. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 99 

Spirit of Nature ! who to me art peace ! 

Happy when thou for me dost speak release, 

And with the call from lowlands by the sea, 

" Friend, come up higher," mak'st me once more free! 

Yea, "come up higher," — where the mountain's crown 

Is kissed by coolness as the night sweeps down ; 

Where darting dragon-fly and cawing crow 

Alike the wholesome life of Nature know,— 

Unbound by sorrow, and unstained by wrongs 

That in the human world drown angels' songs. 

Ah, is it not too wretched to our sight 

That with our scheming we hide heavenly light ! 

We dream our petty plans shall scale the skies : — 

We know not we are blinding our own eyes 

To sights and sounds and spiritual worth 

A myriad times surpassing those of earth. 

" Up higher " then indeed ! And as my feet 
Shall shake from them the dust of city street, 
May mind and soul both likewise open fair 
To hints of Spirit's intellectual air. 
"Up higher " not alone from sea to hill, — 
But higher to the highest heights of Will ; 
Up higher to the peace beyond all strife, 
Up higher to the calm of God's own life. 

Boston, July 8, 1 890. 



100 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

ANNIVERSARY HYMN. 

SUNG AT THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE 

UNITARIAN SOCIETY OF GENEVA, ILLINOIS, 

JUNE, 1892. 

O temple sacred to the Past, 

And sacred to the Present too ! 

Thy walls, which Fifty Years outlast, 

To-day we consecrate anew : 

Anew to God, anew to Man, 

To Love, to Helpfulness, to Truth ; 

While more in each of these we scan 

Than those who knew thee in thy youth. 

Oh, blest that as the centuries fly 
Man's soul doth deeper, higher roam ! 
Yet feels the more that earth and sky 
Are but a vaster temple-home : 
Temple that needs no sun to thrill, 
So grand its inner, fadeless Light ; 
The Godlike in the human still 
Redeeming it from evil plight. 

Honor be thine, O walls grown gray, 
That Freedom here was ever given 
To prophet-souls to point the way 
To higher God and higher heaven. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. IOI 

With Freedom still thy Word be twined, 
O reverend aisles, to us so dear ! 
And other Fifty Years still find 
The voice of Progress echoing here. 

Above the clamors of our day, 

Which fain would drown the still small voice, 

We hear a mightier Presence say, 

Rejoice, O sons of men ! Rejoice ! 

Be open still to prophets' cry ; 

Go on to keener insight yet ! 

Much still remains of Deep and High 

Ere suns and stars of God are set. 



102 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 



PENTECOST. 

" Wohlauf! es ruft der Sonnenschein 
Hinaus in Gottes freie Welt ! " 

— Tieck : Ziiveisicht. 

" Pentecost, which brings 

The Spring." — Longfellow. 

O sluggish slumberer, awake ! — 

The sunlight calls thee ! 
Earth's sullen clods beneath thee quake ; 
The promised buds of Springtide break ; 
The green sedge quivers by the lake. 
No longer Winter's gloom appalls thee ; — 
But out where birds and blossoms wake, 

God's sunlight calls thee ! 

The bobolink beside the brook 

Sings, never weary ; 
The sobbing pine, so long forsook, 
Is loud with caw of crow and rook ; 
And where the snow-hung elder shook, 
And sighed through all the Winter dreary, 
The robins, as in ^Esop's Book, 

Chant loud and cheery. 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 103 

Within the woodland green and wild, 

The fern is springing ; 
And near the maiden-hair so mild, 
And golden mosses high up-piled, 
The violet, Nature's favorite child, 
Its fragrance on the air is flinging. — 
How often hath its breath beguiled 

My heart to singing ! 



O weary soul ! beset by toil 

From dawn till gloaming ! — 

Like Bunyan's Pilgrim, flee the broil ! 

Forsake the city's ceaseless moil ; 

Come out, and tread the tender soil 
Of Beulah, where no footstep, roaming, 

Fails of the priceless wine and oil 
Of Nature's foaming ! 



Pale students ! poring over books 

And musty Latin ! — 
Shakespeare read sermons in the brooks ! 
Through far Ionian seas and nooks 
Old Homer, godlike in his looks, 
Roved singing of earth's robe of satin ! 
And Virgil's shepherds timed their crooks 
To Nature's matin ! 



104 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

O aching feet ! enforced to tread 

Hot urban places ! — 
That fain would wander, fain would wed 
The velvet of some mossy bed ! 
Ye sometime, as the Prophet said, 
Shall rove the wide Eternal spaces ! — 
Rove sometime with the happy dead, 

In heavenly places ! 



O sorrowing heart ! — for him — for her 

Who left thee weeping ! 
Canst thou not deem this wondrous stir 
Of Springtide leaf and gossamer 
A mild angelic minister ? — 
This wakefulness, where all was sleeping, 
Is it not Heaven's own messenger 

To stay thy weeping ? 



Shall not the clouds that roll afar 

On Life's horizon, 
Flee too, like Winter's broken bar ? 
And in their stead a glittering star 
Arise, that JEons shall not mar? 
This is the hope our heart relies on ; — 
And such shall be ! when rolls ajar 

Heaven's fair horizon ! 



UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 105 

L'ENVOI.— " METEORS. " 

I sit in the gloom 

Of my evening room 

On the hill-top high, and gaze on the tomb 

Of darkness which covers earth's beauty and bloom. 

O'er the river's gray track 

Rise the hill-slopes black, — 

Like peddlers, each holding a house for a pack, — 

Or like Atlas of old, with the town on their back ! 

In the Northern sky, 

From their throne on high, 

Fair meteors flash on the wondering eye, 

And fall into darkness, and fail and die : 

Fall suddenly down, 

With the gleam of a crown, 

To fade in the mists and the shadows brown 

Which hazily hang over meadow and town ! 

The villagers sleep : 

Over valley and steep 

Not a household light breaks the darkness deep. — 

The pale stars only their vigils keep. 

But look ! through the night, 
(Where a meteor bright 



106 UPLIFTS OF HEART AND WILL. 

Just vanishing seemed to fall in its flight,) 
There shines in a window a welcoming light ! — 

A scintillant glare, 

Rich, luminous, rare, — 

As if when the meteor vanished in air 

It charmed a new star into radiance there ! 

— O soul of mine ! 

When the Angel Divine 

Shall summon thee swift to a region benign — 

Shall summon thee swift, and thou follow his sign, 

Thou wouldst not ask more 

Than some heart on life's shore 

Grow bright with a gleam of thy vanishing lore — 

Grow bright with a lustre undreamed of before ! 



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